Hungarian clubs to be part of new international tournament

From next season, UEFA is announcing a brand new tournament, ranked below the Champions League and Europa League, which will provide a major opportunity for successful teams from lower-ranked leagues to perform on the continental stage.

This is the third season in a row in which a Hungarian club has featured in the group stages of one of the two European cup competitions. In 2018-2019, MOL Fehérvár reached the Europa League group stages, a feat which was repeated by Ferencváros a year later. Ferencváros then went one better in the 2020-2021 season when they reached the last 32 of the Champions League competition.

The Europa Conference League will be contested by 184 teams from all 55 UEFA member countries. The number of teams eligible from each country is determined by the UEFA coefficients of each league. In addition to the winner of the MOL Hungarian Cup, the clubs finishing second and third in Hungary's OTP Bank Liga will enter the new competition, while the country's league title winners will still enter the Champions League qualifiers.

However, it will also be possible to move into the Europa Conference League from the Champions League and the Europa League. A total of 46 clubs from the two tournaments will end up there, a figure which includes the 20 losing teams from the Champions League qualifying play-offs and eight from the early Europa League qualifying rounds, these 28 teams entering the Conference League play-offs. Ten more teams from the Europa League qualifying play-offs will later join the Conference League group stages, and another eight will move into the last 16 of the Conference League after the Europa League group stages.

The first qualifying round of the Conference League will be played on July 8 and 15, the second on July 22 and 29, the third on August 5 and 12, and the play-offs on August 19 and 26.

The clubs which reach the group stages will first compete in eight groups of four, the winners of each advancing to the first knockout stage. The second-placed teams will be joined by the third-placed teams from the eight Europa League groups to compete in the playoffs for the remaining eight places in the first knockout stage. The access list for the competition can be found here: https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0263-10c848fb43cc-49ac1262ab7c-1000/access_list_2021-22_final.pdf

The first UEFA Europa Conference League final will be held in May 2022 in Tirana, the capital of Albania, the winner of the final earning a place in the following season’s Europa League.