The new European club competition will be called UEFA Europa Conference League
It's official: the third continental club tournament will start in the 2021/2022 season
September 25th, 2019
*** UPDATE ***: during the UEFA Executive Committee held yesterday in Ljubljana the venues of the finals of the upcoming UEFA competitions were established (for example, in 2021 the Champions League, Europa League and European Super Cup finals will be played in Saint Petersburg, Seville and Belfast respectively), but above all the name of the third UEFA club tournament was finally announced, which will not be called the Europa League 2 as provisionally assigned to the newly formed competition during the General Assembly staged in Dublin last December, but UEFA Europa Conference League. The beginning has been confirmed: we will start in the 2021/2022 season with 32 teams that will take part in the group stage, divided into 8 groups of 4 teams each, playing on Thursday. Only one Italian club will compete.
Confirmed: The name of the third UEFA club competition will be UEFA Europa Conference League.
— UEFA (@UEFA) September 24, 2019
The new competition will start in 2021 and is aimed at giving more clubs in more countries a chance to participate in European football. #UEFAExCo
Exactly ten years after the closing of the Intertoto Cup, the competition that disappeared after the UEFA reform in 2008, we will once again dream of another continental tournament for clubs. This was announced by the ECA (European Club Association) president Andrea Agnelli after the 21st General Assembly held in Split with the participation of 160 members and where there was also discussion of FFP (Financial Fair Play), VAR and FIFA transfers system.
Regarding the future of @UEFA Club Competitions, Andrea Agnelli informed members:
— ECA (@ECAEurope) 11 settembre 2018
"Pending approval of the @UEFA ExCo, the 'green light' has been given to introduce a third competition, bringing the overall number of clubs to 96, as of the 2021/22 season" #ECAGeneralAssembly pic.twitter.com/W8tXL1pdsN
Still awaiting the UEFA Executive confirmation, the new competition should start from the 2021/2022 season. It will also involve the Europa League because due to the umpteenth revolution will most likely reduce its own model (from 48 to 32 participating clubs): according to the current plan, in fact, there would be 96 European teams, 32 for each of the three UEFA competitions. Obviously, the consequence will be a remodeling of the calendar, so as to be able to 'fit' the three competitions in a modern way in view of the 2021-2024 period.