UEFA Europa Conference League 2026/27

Third tier of the European club pyramid, below the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League — and the only one of the three built deliberately to widen the door. The UEFA Executive Committee approved the tournament on 2 December 2018, with then-President Aleksander Čeferin championing it as a route into Europe for clubs from leagues that rarely reached the other two. Play began in 2021–22. From 2024–25 the competition dropped a word from its name and is now the UEFA Conference League.

The league phase holds 36 clubs and runs on a Swiss-system model rather than groups: each team meets six different opponents, three at home and three away. The top eight go straight to the Round of 16; those placed ninth to 24th play two-legged knockout play-offs for the remaining places. The Round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals are also two-legged, and the final is a single match at a neutral venue. Clubs enter through domestic league position, cup victory, or by dropping down from Champions League and Europa League qualifying.

There is no promotion or relegation between the tiers, but the winner moves up: the Conference League champion takes a place in the following season's Europa League, and if that club has already qualified higher through domestic results, the spot is redistributed. Money marks the other dividing line — central distribution of €285 million for 2026–27, against €565 million in the Europa League.

AS Roma won the first edition. West Ham United followed in 2022–23, the first side to finish the competition undefeated, then Olympiacos, Chelsea and Crystal Palace.