2026–27 UEFA Conference League
The Beşiktaş Stadium in Istanbul will host the final. | |
| Teams | (from 54 associations) |
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← 2025–26 2027–28 →
All statistics correct as of 7 October 2025. | |
The 2026–27 UEFA Conference League is the sixth season of the UEFA Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA.
The winners of the tournament will automatically qualify for the 2027–28 UEFA Europa League league phase, unless they qualify for the 2027–28 UEFA Champions League or Europa League through their league performance.
Association team allocation
A total of 167 teams from 54 of the 55 UEFA member associations are participating in the 2026–27 UEFA Conference League. The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[1]
- Associations 1–12 each have one team.
- Associations 13–33 and 51–55 (except Russia)[Note RUS] each have two teams.
- Associations 34–50 each have three teams (except Liechtenstein, which has one).[Note LIE]
- 15 teams eliminated from the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League and 41 teams eliminated from the 2026–27 UEFA Europa League will be transferred to the Conference League.
Association ranking
For the 2026–27 UEFA Conference League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2025 UEFA association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2020–21 to 2024–25.[2]
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Conference League, as noted below:
- (UCL) – Additional teams transferred from the UEFA Champions League
- (UEL) – Additional/vacated teams transferred from/to the UEFA Europa League
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Distribution
The following is the access list for this season.
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Teams transferred from Champions League | Teams transferred from Europa League | ||
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| First qualifying round (52 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (102 teams) |
Champions Path (14 teams) |
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| League Path (88 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round (60 teams) |
Champions Path (8 teams) |
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| League Path (52 teams) |
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| Play-off round (48 teams) |
Champions Path (10 teams) |
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| League Path (38 teams) |
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| League phase (36 teams) |
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| Knockout phase play-offs (16 teams) |
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| Round of 16 (16 teams) |
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The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list were made:
- The cup winners of associations 39 to 44 (Kazakhstan, Faroe Islands, Malta, Northern Ireland, Lithuania, and Liechtenstein) will enter the second qualifying round instead of the first qualifying round.
- As a result of corresponding changes to the Champions League access list, there will be one fewer loser from the Champions League first qualifying round transferred to the Conference League second qualifying round (Champions Path) so one transferred team will receive a bye to the third qualifying round (Champions Path).
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 Conference League play-offs winners
- CL: Transferred from the Champions League
- Q1: Losers from the first qualifying round
- EL: Transferred from the Europa League
- PO: Losers from the play-off round
- CH/MP Q3: Losers from the third qualifying round (Champions/Main Path)
- Q2: Losers from the second qualifying round
- Q1: Losers from the first qualifying round[3]
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round were divided into Champions Path (CH) and Main Path (MP).
Notes
- ^ Champions League (UCL Q1): One of the Champions League first qualifying round losers will be drawn to receive byes to the third qualifying round (Champions Path), as one fewer loser will be transferred to the second qualifying round (Champions Path), due to Champions League league phase berth vacated following the suspension of Russia from the European season.
- ^ Liechtenstein (LIE): The seven teams affiliated with the Liechtenstein Football Association (LFV) all played in the Swiss football league system. The only competition organised by the LFV was the Liechtenstein Football Cup – the winners of which qualified for the UEFA Conference League for this season.
- ^ 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.[4] The tables reflect Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.[5]
See also
References
- ^ "Regulations of the UEFA Conference League, 2025/26 Season". UEFA. 2025. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Association coefficients 2024/25". UEFA. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Update on multi-club ownership cases for admission to the 2025/26 UEFA club competitions". UEFA.com. 30 June 2025. Retrieved 3 July 2025.
- ^ "Ukraine crisis: FIFA and UEFA suspend all Russian clubs and national teams". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs" (Press release). UEFA. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.