28 June 2023 , 15:50
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The UEFA Europa Conference League will be renamed as the UEFA Conference League from the 2024/25 season, it has been announced.
European club football’s third-tier competition was launched in 2021 to increase UEFA’s offering beyond the Champions League and Europa League. It has overcome some criticism to produce two entertaining campaigns, with Roma and West Ham providing high-profile winners.
Jose Mourinho guided Roma to their first continental title since the Fairs Cup in 1961 in the inaugural season, beating Feyenoord 1-0 in the final in May 2022. That was followed by West Ham’s first European trophy since 1965 when they overcame Fiorentina 2-1 thanks to Jarrod Bowen’s 90th-minute winner earlier this month.
At a UEFA executive committee meeting in Nyon, Switzerland, the organisers voted through the name change, which will take effect before the 2024/25 season.
West Ham won the second edition of the UEFA Europa Conference League (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)A statement from UEFA said: “Introduced under the ‘Europa’ umbrella at the start of the 2021-24 commercial cycle, the new competition has quickly established itself amongst a broad audience after two successful seasons.
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“Research amongst fans as well as commercial partners has found that removing ‘Europa’ from the name of the competition will enable further development as a stand-alone competition and this proposed change was approved by the UEFA Executive Committee. It will be effective in the new cycle, as of the 2024-25 season.
“Together with the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Conference League will continue to deliver ‘Thursday Night Football’ to fans across Europe and beyond.
Jose Mourinho won the UEFA Europa Conference League with Roma in 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)“A strong link between the competitions will remain in place as both brand identities will remain very close, and both competitions will continue to be sold to broadcast partners and sponsors together.”
At the same meeting it was decided that the UEFA Conference League finals next year and in 2025 would be played in Athens and Wroclaw respectively. The Agia Sofia Stadium in Athens is brand new and will therefore require assessment until November, before UEFA officially sign off on it hosting the showpiece game.
West Ham will play in the Europa League next season thanks to their triumph over Fiorentina. Aston Villa will be the only English team in the UEFA Conference League when it restarts in September after Unai Emery’s side finished seventh last season.
They will have to book their place in the group stage proper by winning a two-legged play-off tie in August.
"Everyone is very happy with this step,” Emery said upon qualifying with a 2-1 win over Brighton on the final day of the season. “Today was our moment. We have an ambitious objective, we are trying to build a strong spirit and a structure. We have time to work more next year and we have one more competition to play, it is an another option for a trophy. I want it. I have played in Europe for 15 years and it is fantastic to have it."