The 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League was the inaugural season of the

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on the ...

, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs foo ...

. The

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

was played at the

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Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...

, with

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defeating Feyenoord 1–0. As winners, Roma automatically qualified for the 2022–23 UEFA Europa League group stage, although they had already done so through their league position. This season was the first since 1999–2000 (the first season after the dissolution of the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

) where three major European club competitions (

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

, and UEFA Europa Conference League) took place. On 24 June 2021, UEFA approved the proposal to abolish the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

in all UEFA club competitions, which had been used since 1965. Therefore, if in a

two-legged tie In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum ...

, two teams scored the same number of aggregate goals, the winner was not decided by the number of away goals scored by each team, but always by 30 minutes of

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only ...

, and if the two teams scored the same amount of goals in extra time, the winner was decided by a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

Association team allocation

A total of 181 teams from 54 of the 55

member associations participated in the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League (the exception being

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, as none of their teams finished third in the Europa League group stage). The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: *Associations 1–5 each had one team qualify. **Association 1 (Spain) did not have any team qualify for this season, as the team which would have participated, Villarreal, won the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League was the 50th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Villarreal defeated Manchester United ...

and earned a place in the

2021–22 UEFA Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League was the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid ...

. *Associations 6–15 and 51–55 each had two teams qualify. *Associations 16–50 (except Liechtenstein) each had three teams qualify. **As the UEFA Europa Conference League title holders' berth in the UEFA Europa League was vacant this season, association 16 (Cyprus) had their domestic cup winner promoted from the Europa Conference League to the Europa League, so they only had two teams qualify. *

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had one team qualify (Liechtenstein organised only a domestic cup and no domestic league). *Moreover, 20 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League and 26 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Europa League were transferred to the Europa Conference League. **For this season, only 19 teams eliminated from the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League were transferred, as there was one fewer team competing in the Champions Path qualifying of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League.

Association ranking

For the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2020 UEFA country coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2015–16 to 2019–20. Apart from the allocation based on the country coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Europa Conference League, as noted below: * – Additional/vacated teams transferred from/to the UEFA Champions League * – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Europa League

Distribution

The following is the access list for this season. In the default access list, the title holders of the Europa Conference League qualify for the Europa League group stage. However, since this berth was vacant this season, the following changes to the access list were made: *The cup winners of association 16 (Cyprus) entered the Europa League instead of the second qualifying round of the Europa Conference League. *The cup winners of associations 30 (Slovakia) and 31 (Liechtenstein) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round. As Villarreal, which otherwise would have qualified for the Europa Conference League play-off round via their domestic league, won the

, thereby earning an automatic spot in the Champions League group stage as the Europa League title holders, thus vacating a berth in the play-off round. The following changes were confirmed by UEFA: *The domestic cup winners of associations 17 (Switzerland) and 18 (Greece) entered the third qualifying round instead of the second qualifying round. *The domestic cup winners of associations 32 (Slovenia), 33 (Hungary), 34 (Luxembourg) and 35 (Lithuania) entered the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round. Moreover, in the default access list, originally 17 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path). However, since the Champions League title holders, Chelsea, which were guaranteed a berth in the Champions League group stage, already qualified via their domestic league, only 16 losers from the Champions League first qualifying round were transferred to the Europa Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path) after the Champions League access list was rebalanced. As a result, only 19 teams entered the Champions Path second qualifying round (one of the losers from the Champions League first qualifying round was drawn to receive a bye to the third 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) *Abd-: League positions of abandoned season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Europe The global COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Europe with its first confirmed case in Bordeaux, France, on 24 January 2020, and subsequently spread widely across the continent. By 17 March 2020, every country in Europe had confirmed a case, and all ...

as determined by the national association; all teams were subject to approval by UEFA as per the guidelines for entry to European competitions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP). ''CC: 2021 UEFA club coefficients.'' Three teams not playing in a national top division took part in the competition:

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( 2nd tier), Sileks ( 2nd tier) and

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( 2nd tier). Notes

Schedule

The schedule of the competition was as follows. 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 (especially featuring teams from countries where there were very few sufficient stadiums, such as Gibraltar and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

). Scheduled kick-off times starting from the group stage were 18:45 (instead of 18:55 previously) and 21:00 CEST/CET, though exceptionally could take place at 16:30 due to geographical reasons. All draws started at 13:00 or 14:00 CEST/CET and were held at the UEFA headquarters in

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, Switzerland. On 16 July 2021, UEFA announced that the group stage draw would be held in

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, Turkey.

Qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

Third qualifying round

Play-off round

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 27 August 2021, 13:30 CEST (14:30

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), in

, Turkey. 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 2021 UEFA club coefficients. Teams from the same association, and due to political reasons, teams from Azerbaijan and Armenia, could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association, including those playing in the Europa League group stage (one pairing for associations with two or three teams, two pairings for associations with four or five teams), based on television audiences, where one team was drawn into Groups A–D and another team was drawn into Groups E–H, so that the two teams would have different kick-off times. The matches were played on 14 and 16 September, 30 September, 21 October, 4 November, 25 November, and 9 December 2021. The winners of each group advanced to the round of 16, while the runners-up advanced to the knockout round play-offs. The third-placed and fourth-placed teams were eliminated from European competitions for the season. Alashkert, Bodø/Glimt,

Flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

, Kairat,

Lincoln Red Imps Lincoln Red Imps Football Club is a professional association football club from Gibraltar. They play in the Gibraltar National League, and share Victoria Stadium with all other clubs in the territory. They are the country's record champion with ...

, Mura,

Randers Randers () is a city in Randers Municipality, Central Denmark Region on the Jutland peninsula. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 62,802 (as of 1 January 2022).Union Berlin made their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Alashkert, Flora and Lincoln Red Imps were the first teams from Armenia, Estonia and Gibraltar, respectively, to play in a UEFA competition group stage.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Knockout phase

In the knockout phase, teams played against each other over

two legs In sports (particularly association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum ...

on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.

Bracket

Knockout round play-offs

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics

Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.

Top goalscorers

Top assists

Team of the Season

The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament:

Player of the Season

* Lorenzo Pellegrini (

)

Young Player of the Season

* Luis Sinisterra ( Feyenoord)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Europa Conference League 2021-22 3

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