Conference League format explained: six games, one table

The UEFA Conference League puts 36 clubs into one league table, but each of them plays only six matches, against six different opponents, three at home and three away. The top eight go straight to the round of 16, the clubs placed 9th to 24th meet in two-legged knockout phase play-offs, and the bottom twelve are out of Europe. Two-legged knockout rounds then lead to a single-match final, which in 2026/27 is in Istanbul on 2 June 2027.

The format at a glance

This is the sixth edition of the competition, which started in 2021/22, and the third with a league phase. The 2026/27 season began with the first qualifying matches on 9 July 2026.

Who is in the league phase

Nobody enters the Conference League league phase directly. All 36 clubs came through summer qualifying, by one of two doors:

• 24 winners of the Conference League play-off round, the last step of the competition's own qualifying, which is split into a champions path and a main path.
• 12 clubs beaten in the Europa League play-off round, who moved across in late August.

That is the main difference from the Champions League and the Europa League, where a large part of the field is seeded straight into the league phase. Once the Conference League league phase starts, the door closes: no club drops in from another competition during the season.

Brighton are the only English club in the field. They came through the play-off round, as did Scotland's representatives, Hearts, who needed a penalty shoot-out against Rapid Wien after a 4-4 aggregate draw. Denmark has the most clubs, four: AGF Aarhus, Copenhagen, Midtjylland and Nordsjælland. The full list for 2026/27 is Egnatia, Inter Escaldes, Gent, Sint-Truiden, Borac Banja Luka, CSKA Sofia, Hajduk Split, Pafos, Jablonec, AGF Aarhus, Copenhagen, Midtjylland, Nordsjælland, Brighton, KuPS, Monaco, Iberia 1999, Freiburg, Lincoln Red Imps, Panathinaikos, Atalanta, Kairat, Riga FC, Kauno Žalgiris, Ajax, Twente, Brann, Braga, Universitatea Craiova, Hearts, Crvena zvezda, Getafe, Mjällby, Lugano, Thun and Trabzonspor.

How the league phase works

The draw: six pots of six

For the draw in Monaco on 28 August 2026, the clubs were divided into six pots of six according to their UEFA club coefficient. Each club was drawn against one opponent from every pot, its own included. That gives six matches against six different sides of varying strength, and the draw also fixed which three are at home and which three away. In principle a club cannot face a side from its own association, and it can meet no more than two clubs from any other single association.

Brighton were in Pot 2 and Hearts in Pot 4. Pot 1 contained Atalanta, Braga, Ajax, Freiburg, Monaco and Copenhagen.

One table, ten tiebreakers

All results feed a single 36-club table. Since the clubs do not play the same opponents, head-to-head records are not used. Clubs level on points at the end of the league phase are separated in this order:

1. Goal difference
2. Goals scored
3. Away goals scored
4. Wins
5. Away wins
6. Points obtained collectively by the club's league phase opponents
7. Collective goal difference of those opponents
8. Collective goals scored by those opponents
9. Fewer disciplinary points (yellow and red cards for players and team officials)
10. Higher club coefficient

Between matchdays 1 and 5, while the phase is still in progress, only the first five criteria are applied. For the way domestic leagues handle the same problem, see how league table tiebreakers work.

With only six matches, the margins are small. One win more or less moves a club a long way up or down the table, and goal difference decides many places.

What the final position decides

• 1st to 8th: straight to the round of 16, seeded there.
• 9th to 16th: seeded in the knockout phase play-offs, with the second leg in principle at home.
• 17th to 24th: unseeded in the play-offs.
• 25th to 36th: out of European football for the season.

The knockout phase

The table shapes the bracket. In the play-offs, a draw only decides which of two possible opponents a club meets:

The top eight are paired in the same way (1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th, and so on) and drawn into bracket positions against the play-off winners. From then on the bracket is fixed, so every club can see its possible route to the final.

A high finish keeps paying off. The seeded club plays the second leg at home in the play-offs and the round of 16; in the quarter-finals that advantage goes to clubs ranked in the top four, and in the semi-finals to the top two. If a seeded club is knocked out, the side that beat it takes over its place in the bracket.

Every tie before the final is played over two legs. If the two clubs have scored the same number of goals over both matches, two 15-minute periods of extra time follow at the end of the second leg, and then a penalty shoot-out if they are still level. Away goals carry no extra weight. The details are in stoppage time, extra time and penalties.

Dates for 2026/27

The league phase starts a month later than in the other two competitions and is finished before Christmas. All six matchdays fall on a Thursday; the final is on a Wednesday. Dates are subject to change.

What the winners get

The winners earn a place in the league phase of the 2027/28 Europa League, unless they have already qualified for the Champions League or the Europa League through their domestic competition. Crystal Palace are the current example: they won the 2025/26 final and are playing this season's Europa League as a result.

The trophy stands 57.5 cm tall and weighs 11 kg. Its 32 hexagonal spines twist upwards from the base.

Following the Conference League on ScoreMondo

The Conference League page has the league phase table, fixtures and results, and later the knockout ties. On matchdays the live scores update as goals are scored, and each match page shows events, statistics and line-ups. Yesterday's results are listed by day, and the leagues overview leads to the other European competitions and the domestic leagues, including the Premier League table. In the apps you can add clubs to your favourites and turn on goal alerts. If a match carries a label you do not recognise, match statuses explained covers them.

A short history

The competition was launched in 2021/22 as the UEFA Europa Conference League, the third tier of European club football. The first final was played at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana on 25 May 2022, where Roma beat Feyenoord 1-0. UEFA shortened the name to UEFA Conference League from the start of 2024/25, the same season in which the league phase replaced the group stage.

Five finals have produced five different winners, three of them English. No club has won the competition twice.

Questions and answers

Why do clubs play six matches and not eight?

That is how the Conference League league phase is built: six pots of six clubs, and one opponent from each pot. The Champions League and Europa League use four pots of nine and two opponents from each, which gives eight matches.

How many matches does it take to win the Conference League?

From the league phase, thirteen for a club that finishes in the top eight: six league matches, six across the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, and the final. A club that goes through the knockout phase play-offs plays fifteen. Qualifying rounds come on top of that.

Do clubs drop from the Europa League into the Conference League?

Only in the summer. The twelve clubs beaten in the Europa League play-off round enter the Conference League league phase. Clubs that finish 25th to 36th in the Europa League league phase are eliminated and do not move down.

Where is the 2027 final?

At Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul on Wednesday 2 June 2027. The same ground staged the 2026 Europa League final. The 2028 final is scheduled for Turin and the 2029 final for Budapest.