🏆 The Europa Conference League will launch next season.
🇦🇱 🏟️ The #UEFAExCo has announced the competition’s first final will be at Albania’s new National Arena in Tirana in 2022!
— UEFA (@UEFA) December 3, 2020
The European Super League may have lasted only forty-eight hours, but despite the fleeting nature of its predecessor, there will be a new European tournament in 2021/22 on account of the Europa Conference League. UEFA’s new tournament, first approved in 2018, aims to simplify the bloated Europa League while allowing teams from more European countries to compete in continental football. That number was a minimum of 26 in 2020, but will be at least 32 from 2021 onwards. That includes England, which as one of the top five leagues by UEFA coefficient, will contribute one team to the new tournament.
England’s place is awarded to the winner of the League Cup, but since Manchester City won the trophy in April and have already qualified for the Champions League, the place transfers to seventh in the Premier League. That’s a prospect that could put several teams – and managers – on edge for the rest of the season.
Who Will Represent England in the Conference League?
As of the middle of May, Tottenham Hotspur sat seventh in the league, with eighth-placed Everton just behind on goal difference. Liverpool and West Ham, placed fifth and sixth, are also within reach for both sides. For punters trying to predict the Premiership as we come to the last leg of the season, any of the four could easily finish in the Conference League place.
For Spurs and Everton, teams who both harboured aims of making the Champions League after promising starts to the season, they now find themselves in an awkward position. To miss the Europa League would be disappointing – but playing in the Conference League next season could be downright damaging.
That’s because the Conference League, which until recently was known in internal UEFA communications as ‘Europa League 2’, has very little merit in winning the competition. The winners will be rewarded with a place in the Europa League, which is already the bare minimum Spurs and Everton fans expect from their sides in the league.
Is the Conference League Worth It?
For all the potential glory at stake, playing a European campaign can be costly. Wolves, Swansea, Burnley, and Wigan Athletic are among the teams who have, in the past, defied expectation to earn a European place via either the Premier League or FA Cup. But the strain of playing an extra game a week, often featuring long midweek away trips, derailed their domestic league campaigns.
Only last year in 2019/20, Wolves played European football over 383 days from qualifying to their defeat at the hands of eventual winners Sevilla in the quarterfinals. For teams like Manchester City, who have deep squads that can be easily rotated, this kind of workload isn’t unfairly taxing, or even uncommon. But for sides further down the table, competing on several fronts is only worth it if the potential rewards are.
Managers may see the prospect of playing Kazakhstan’s fourth-best team, Shakhter Karagandy, or FC Honka from the Finnish Veikkausliiga, as barely worth players like Harry Kane or James Rodriguez getting on the plane. For the teams representing the major five leagues in the inaugural Conference League, however, winning the tournament will be expected. So, being knocked out would be something of an embarrassment.
