This edition was the final season under its current name, as it was renamed to the UEFA Conference League from the 2024–25 season onwards. According to UEFA, the new denomination of the competition would enable further development as a stand-alone competition in their research amongst fans and commercial partners.[4][5] This was also the final season with the current format of 32 teams participating in the group stage, after UEFA announced that a brand-new Swiss-system format would be introduced for the following edition.[6] Due to the change, no clubs could be transferred from the Europa League group stage to the Conference League, so starting with this edition the winners would no longer be able to defend their title.[7]
A total of 178 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations (excluding Russia) participated in the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League. The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[8]
Associations 1–5 each had one team qualify.
Associations 6–16 (except Russia)[Note RUS] and 51–55 each had two teams qualify.
Associations 17–50 (except Liechtenstein) each had three teams qualify.
Liechtenstein had only one team that qualified as they organized only a domestic cup and no domestic league.
Moreover, 18 teams eliminated from the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League and 25 teams eliminated from the 2023–24 UEFA Europa League were transferred to the Europa Conference League.
Association ranking
For the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2022 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2017–18 to 2021–22.[9]
Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa Conference League, as noted below:
(UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
(UEL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Europa League
Association ranking for 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League
The following is the access list for this season.[10]
Access list for 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League
Teams entering in this round
Teams advancing from previous round
Teams transferred from Champions League
Teams transferred from Europa League
First qualifying round (62 teams)
16 domestic cup winners from associations 40–55
25 domestic league runners-up from associations 30–55 (except Liechtenstein)[Note LIE]
21 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 29–50 (except Liechtenstein)[Note LIE]
—
—
—
Second qualifying round (106 teams)
Champions Path (16 teams)
—
—
13 teams eliminated from Champions League first qualifying round
3 teams eliminated from Champions League preliminary round
—
Main Path (90 teams)
20 domestic cup winners from associations 20–39
14 domestic league runners-up from associations 16–29
16 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 13–28
8 domestic league fourth-placed teams from associations 7–15 (except Russia)[Note RUS]
1 domestic league fifth-placed team from association 6
31 winners from the first qualifying round
—
—
Third qualifying round (64 teams)
Champions Path (10 teams)
—
8 winners from the second qualifying round (Champions Path)
2 teams eliminated from Champions League first qualifying round
—
Main Path (54 teams)
3 domestic cup winners from associations 17–19
5 domestic league third-placed teams from associations 7–12 (except Russia)[Note RUS]
1 domestic league fourth-placed team from association 6
45 winners from the second qualifying round (Main Path)
—
—
Play-off round (44 teams)
Champions Path (10 teams)
—
5 winners from the third qualifying round (Champions Path)
—
5 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round (Champions Path)
Main Path (34 teams)
1 domestic league fifth-placed team from association 5
3 domestic league sixth-placed teams from associations 2–4
1 league cup winner from England
27 winners from the third qualifying round (Main Path)
—
2 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round (Main Path)
Group stage (32 teams)
—
5 winners from the play-off round (Champions Path)
17 winners from the play-off round for (Main Path)
—
10 teams eliminated from Europa League play-off round
Preliminary knockout round (16 teams)
—
8 group runners-up from the group stage
—
8 group third-placed teams from Europa League group stage
Knockout phase (16 teams)
—
8 group winners from the group stage
8 winners from the preliminary knockout round
—
—
Due to the suspension of Russia for the 2023–24 European season, the following changes to the access list were made:
The cup winners of association 16 (Czech Republic) entered the Europa League third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
The cup winners of associations 17 to 19 (Norway, Denmark and Croatia) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
The cup winners of associations 30 to 39 (Slovakia, Slovenia, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Luxembourg, Latvia and Kosovo) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.
Combining with the Champions League title holder (Manchester City) qualifying for the Champions League group stage via their domestic league, the following changes to the access list were made:
Two of the Champions League first qualifying round losers received byes and entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
CW: Domestic cup winners
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, etc.: League position of the previous season
LC: League cup winners
RW: Regular season winners
PW: End-of-season Europa Conference League play-offs winners
UCL: Transferred from the Champions League
Q1: Losers from the first qualifying round
PR: Losers from the preliminary round (F: final; SF: semi-finals)
UEL: Transferred from the Europa League
GS: Third-placed teams from the group stage
PO: Losers from the play-off round
CH/MP Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round (Champions/Main Path)
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
Qualified teams for 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League
Champions League (UCL Q1): Two of the Champions League first qualifying round losers were drawn to receive byes to the third qualifying round (Champions Path), as two fewer losers were transferred to the second qualifying round (Champions Path), due to Champions League group stage berths vacated following the UCL title holders qualifying via league position and the suspension of Russia from the 2023–24 European season.
Belarus (BLR): The winners (Shakhtyor Soligorsk) and runners-up (Energetik-BGU Minsk) of the 2022 Belarusian Premier League were both found guilty of match-fixing by the Football Federation of Belarus and were denied UEFA licenses. Fifth-placed Isloch Minsk Raion were also denied a UEFA license due to their involvement in another match-fixing scandal. The sixth- and seventh-placed teams, Minsk and Gomel did not apply for UEFA licences. As eighth-placed Torpedo-BelAZ Zhodino had already qualified for the second qualifying round as cup winners, the Europa Conference League berth reserved for the usual third-placed team was passed down to the highest-placed team who were granted a UEFA license, Neman Grodno, who finished ninth.[11][12][13]
Italy (ITA): Due to a violation of UEFA's financial regulations, the seventh-placed Juventus were excluded from UEFA men's club competitions. Subsequently, Fiorentina, the eighth-placed team, took its place in the Europa Conference League.[14]
Kosovo (KOS):Prishtina would have qualified for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round as the winners of the 2022–23 Kosovar Cup, but failed to obtain a UEFA license. As a result, the berth reserved for the second qualifying round was given to the runner-up of the 2022–23 Football Superleague of Kosovo, Drita, who originally entered the first qualifying round, and the berth reserved for the first qualifying round was given to the fourth-placed team, Dukagjini.[15]
Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[16] The tables reflected Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.[17]
San Marino (SMR): Cup winners Virtus were found guilty of match-fixing and denied a UEFA license. The third-placed team of the league, La Fiorita, were selected as their replacement by the San Marino Football Federation.[18]
Ukraine (UKR): The 2022–23 Ukrainian Cup was abandoned due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The berths reserved for the third and fourth-placed teams in the league were transferred to the fourth and fifth-placed teams in the league respectively.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition was as follows.[19][20][21] Matches were scheduled for Thursdays apart from the final, which took place on a Wednesday, though exceptionally could take place on Tuesdays or Wednesdays due to scheduling conflicts.
Schedule for 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League
The draw for the first qualifying round was made on 20 June 2023.
The first legs were played on 12 and 13 July, and the second legs were played on 18 and 20 July 2023.
The winners of the ties advanced to the Main Path second qualifying round. The losers were eliminated from European competitions for the season.
The draw for the second qualifying round was made on 21 June 2023.
The first legs were played on 25, 26 and 27 July, and the second legs were played on 1, 2 and 3 August 2023.
The winners of the ties advanced to the third qualifying round of their respective path. The losers were eliminated from European competitions for the season.
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 24 July 2023.
The first legs were played on 9 and 10 August, and the second legs were played on 16 and 17 August 2023.
The winners of the ties advanced to the play-off round of their respective path. The losers were eliminated from European competitions for the season.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 August 2023.
The first legs were played on 23 and 24 August, and the second legs were played on 31 August 2023.
The winners of the ties advanced to the group stage. The losers were eliminated from European competitions for the season.
Location of teams of the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage Brown: Group A; Red: Group B; Orange: Group C; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F; Purple: Group G; Pink: Group H.
Location of Benelux and nearby team of the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage. Red: Group B; Yellow: Group D; Green: Group E; Blue: Group F.
The draw for the group stage was held on 1 September 2023, 14:30 CEST, in Monaco. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on their club coefficients.[23] Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group.
All teams besides AZ, Ballkani, Bodø/Glimt, Fiorentina, Gent, HJK, Maccabi Tel Aviv, PAOK, Slovan Bratislava and Zorya Luhansk made their debut appearances in the group stage. Breiðablik, Čukarički, KÍ, Olimpija Ljubljana and Zrinjski Mostar all made their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Breiðablik, KÍ and Zrinjski Mostar were the first teams from Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively, to play in a UEFA competition group stage. Breiðablik also became the first ever team to qualify for the group stages of a UEFA club competition after starting in a preliminary round.
A total of 28 national associations were represented in the group stage.
In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.
The mechanism of the draws for each round was as follows:
In the draw for the knockout round play-offs, the eight group runners-up were seeded, and the eight Europa League group third-placed teams were unseeded. The seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draw for the round of 16, the eight group winners were seeded, and the eight winners of the knockout round play-offs were unseeded. Again, the seeded teams were drawn against the unseeded teams, with the seeded teams hosting the second leg. Teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other.
In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there were no seedings, and teams from the same association could be drawn against each other. As the draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals were held together before the quarter-finals were played, the identity of the quarter-final winners was not known at the time of the semi-final draw. A draw was also held to determine which semi-final winner would be designated as the "home" team for the final (for administrative purposes as it was played at a neutral venue).
The draw for the knockout round play-offs was held on 18 December 2023, 14:00 CET.[24]
The first legs were played on 15 February, and the second legs were played on 21 and 22 February 2024.
The draw for the round of 16 was held on 23 February 2024, 13:00 CET.[25]
The first legs were played on 7 March, and the second legs were played on 14 March 2024.
The draw for the quarter-finals was held on 15 March 2024, 14:00 CET.[26]
The first legs were played on 11 April, and the second legs were played on 18 April 2024.
The draw for the semi-finals was held on 15 March 2024, 14:00 CET, after the quarter-final draw.[26]
The first legs were played on 2 May, and the second legs were played on 8 and 9 May 2024.
The final was played on 29 May 2024 at the Agia Sophia Stadium in Athens, Greece. A draw was held on 15 March 2024, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.[26]
^"Access list 2021–24"(PDF). UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. Archived(PDF) from the original on 4 December 2018. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
Brown: Group A; 
Red: Group B; 
Orange: Group C; 
Yellow: Group D;
Green: Group E; 
Blue: Group F; 
Purple: Group G; 
Pink: Group H.
