Europa Conference League - Chelsea

Chelsea have booked their place in the group phase of the Conference League. Here’s a rundown of UEFA’s newest competition and what to expect this season…

Tournament history

A third season-long UEFA men's football club competition was introduced in 2021/22 in the form of the UEFA Europa Conference League, with the aim of making continental football more inclusive with a wider range of associations involved.

It runs on Thursday nights – alongside the UEFA Europa League – and more than 170 teams are involved across the season, including at least one from each UEFA association and with clubs transferring from either the Champions League or Europa League.

The previous winners are Roma 2022, West Ham United 2023 and Olympiacos 2024.

Ahead of this season, it was renamed the UEFA Conference League.

Qualification

The first matches in this season’s competition took place on 11 July, before the 2023/24 campaign had even ended for our players who reached the final stages of the European Championship and Copa America.

The play-off stage consists of one club entering from each of the top five football associations, 30 winners of Conference League third-round qualifying ties and 13 losers from Europa League third-round qualifiers.

The 24 sides who progress, plus 12 teams who lose in the Europa League play-offs, will reach the league phase of the competition.

What is the new format?

As with the other UEFA competitions, 2024/25 is a season of change for the Conference League.

The biggest alteration is to the group stage, which will become a single 36-team league in which each side faces six different teams three at home, three away. The draw will be made tomorrow Friday 30 August.

The top eight clubs at the end of the league stage advance directly to the round of 16, while sides finishing from ninth to 24th will contest the knockout round play-offs to earn their spot among the final 16.

All ties from the knockout stage up to the final are played over two legs.

Chelsea will take on Gent home, Heidenheim away, Astana away, Shamrock Rovers home, Panathinaikos away and Noah home in our first-ever Conference League campaign.

It will be our first competitive meeting with all six of those opponents, although we have met other sides from Belgium Gent, Germany Heidenheim and Greece Panathinaikos on several occasions in Europe. However, we will be taking on teams from Kazakhstan Astana, the Republic of Ireland Shamrock Rovers and Armenia Noah for the first time in our history competitively.

We booked our place in the league phase last night, by completing a 3-2 aggregate win over Swiss side Servette in the qualifying play-off round, thanks to penalties in each leg by Christopher Nkunku and a Noni Madueke strike at Stamford Bridge.

As the highest ranked team in the competition by UEFA coefficient, Chelsea were included in Pot 1 for the draw for the league phase, which has been newly introduced as part of the changes for this season’s revamped competition.

We will play one team from all six pots, once each, either home or away. The top eight of the total 36 sides then progress directly to the last 16, and a further 16 sides face off in the play-offs to join them.

Details on the order and dates of Chelsea’s six fixtures will be confirmed tomorrow, followed by ticket information in due course. We will bring you the news here on the official Chelsea website and app.