The UEFA Body consists of 55 members association in which 2 topnotch competitions brings them together; The UEFA Champions league and the UEFA Europa League. The Group stage of the Champions league permits 32 teams in which the top five leagues do take most times do take 21 slots while countries like Portugal, Russia also try to consistently have representatives in the group stage which implies that it permits only a few member association.
The UEFA Europa League permits 48 teams in the group stage yet the top 5 leagues still share about 12 - 15 slots implying that it still Can't go round the 55 member association and due to the interests of member association to be involved in UEFA competitions, UEFA led by the President; Ceferin thereby introduced a Third-tier competition; The Europa Conference League envisioned to bring about having a minimum of 34 member association participate in UEFA Group stages.
The ECL
The ECL is going to play a second fiddle to the Europa League as it as no impact, imprint or disruption on the UEFA Champions league as it leads to a little restructuring of the Europa League. It will be sharing a lot of features in common with the UEL from the logo design, the competition structure, the Trophy design, Sponsorship, Days for Games, etc.
COMPETITION STRUCTURE
The competition is structured to host the 55 members association in it's competition, quite similar to that of the Europa League, there'll be three Qualifying rounds into the Group stage, afterwards to the knockout stages.
First Qualifying Round
Second Qualifying round
Third Qualifying round
Group Stage
Play off
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semifinal and the Final.
32 teams will make the Group stage of 8groups hosting 4 teams each and the winners of the Groups automatically qualifies for the Round of 16 while the runners up in each group will be drawn with third placed teams from the Europa league group stage on a two-legged affair to join up with the other 8 automatically qualified teams to compete for the Quarter-finals, Semi and the Final.
The Winner of the Competition will be given a slot to compete in the Europa league in the coming season except such team as an automatic qualification from it Association to compete at the UEFA Champions League.
The link below redirects you to the UEFA Page for the Access list of how a team can get to qualify for the competition including those that emerges as winners in their respective national cup: https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0263-10c848fb43cc-49ac1262ab7c-1000/access_list_2021-22_final.pdf as 184 teams from the 55 member association will be competing for the the newly created competition.
LOGO DESIGN
The Logo and Trophy was designed in UK as the logo contained the Trophy. The Trophy took a similar structure of the Europa league with an Hexagonal 32-edges/sides with a net-like brass shavings and it's logo on it.
The Logo is exactly same as the Europa League with Europa Conference league Trophy placed in between with a semi-circle design
THEME SONG/SPONSORSHIP
The Third-tier competition will be sharing same theme song for the competition as well as sponsorship and other parts of the competition including the days of competition both to share Thursdays with two different kick-off time.
DRAW
The schedule for the Competition is drawn already and the schedule is as follows:
First and second qualifying draw: 15/16 June
First qualifying round of games: 8 & 15 July
Second qualifying round of games: 22 & 29, July
Third Qualifying draw: 19, July
Third Qualifying round of game: 5 & 12 August.
Play off Draw: 2 August
Playoffs: 19 & 26 August
Group stage Draw: 27 August
Group stage Games: 16 & 30 September, 21 October, 4 & 25 November and 9 December
Knockout Playoff draw: 13 December
Knockout Playoffs: 17 & 24 February, 2022
Round of 16 Draw: 25 February
Round of 16: 10 & 17 March
Quarterfinal & Semifinal Draw: 18 March
Quarterfinal: 7 & 14 Aprik
Semifinal: 28 April and 5 May
FINAL
The Final will be played at National arena, TIRANA, Albania, 25th May, 2022 seven days after Europa League final at Seville, Spain 18, May, 2022.
EUROPA LEAGUE RESTRUCTURE
Due to this welcomed innovation by the UEFA Body led by the President; Ceferin, there's a need for Europa restructure hence the number of teams participating in the Europa league as been reduced and there only be 32 teams for the Group stage as against the 48 in previous years but the structure of a knockout Playoff of runners up in Group stage against third placed teams in the Champions league continues.
Now, third placed teams in the Europa league do have an opportunity to feature in the Knockout Playoff of the Europa Conference league.
Other nations will definitely be glad with this Expansion process.
✍️ Mategghead
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