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Europe’s third-tier club competition is heading into its fifth season. The 2025/26 UEFA Conference League calendar will see qualifying commence in July, with teams from all over the continent bidding to make it into the league phase. The competition won’t conclude until May 2026 when the final takes place in Leipzig, Germany.

Spanish participation in this season’s competition comes from Rayo Vallecano who secured an impressive 8th place finish in LaLiga. Fiorentina, Mainz, Nottingham Forest and Strasbourg are the other clubs from Europe’s “big five” leagues that are taking part, and all will enter in the play-off round.

2025/26 UEFA Conference League dates

10th July 2025 – Conference League qualifying starts

The Conference League was in part created to give clubs from Europe’s smaller countries a chance of making it deeper into a competition than would be possible in the Europa League or Champions League.

50 clubs will start out in the first qualifying round which kicks off on Thursday 10th July, while a huge 100 will be involved in the second qualifying round which takes place in the final two weeks of the month. AZ, Sparta Prague, Rapid Vienna, AEK Athens and Istanbul Basaksehir are among the clubs who will enter at that stage.

There’ll be 60 involved in the third qualifying round in the first half of August, including a few drop-outs from Champions League and Europa League qualifying.

4th August 2025 – Play-off round draw

While the 2025/26 Champions League calendar ensures direct progression into the league phase for Spanish clubs, Rayo Vallecano will need to progress through a play-off to make it that far in the Conference League.

They’ll be in the draw that takes place on Monday 4th August 2025 to determine their play-off opponents. Rayo, playing in Europe for only the second time, will be seeded in that draw and while they won’t immediately know their opponents, they’ll be paired with either the eventual winners of a Conference League third qualifying round tie, or the losers of a Europa League third qualifying round tie.

21st-28th August 2025 – Play-off round

Continental action will come to Vallecas in August, as the play-off round takes place over two legs. While it’s still very early in Europe’s third competition, there is still the potential for some really competitive ties at this point, as Osasuna found out in 2023/24 when their return to Europe was ended very early by a play-off defeat against Club Brugge.

There will be 24 play-off round ties in total, five featuring domestic champions who have dropped down from the other competitions, while the other 19 will occur in the “league path”. The winner of each tie will progress into the league phase.

29th August 2025 – League phase draw

As well as the 24 play-off winners, the 12 losers from the Europa League play-off round will enter the league phase, with a final field of 36 teams set for the main part of this season’s edition of the Conference League.

The format from this point on is much the same as the other competitions, although whereas the Europa League and Champions League will feature eight matchdays in the league phase, UEFA Conference League teams will only play six games.

The draw will see the 36 clubs divided into six pots of six according to their UEFA coefficient. In the computerised draw, each team will be allocated one opponent from each pot, with three home and three away fixtures.

2nd October 2025 – League phase begins

The Conference League takes a breather in September after a hectic qualifying schedule that will see some clubs need to play eight matches just in order to reach the league phase.

The action returns on Thursday 2nd October with matchday one, with clubs set to play on six Thursday nights over the remainder of the calendar year. A few matches may be brought forward a day or two in cases where clubs from the same city are drawn to play at home in either the Europa or Conference Leagues on the same night. Rayo’s home games should all take place on Thursdays though.

18th December 2025 – League phase final matchday

The league stage action concludes on Thursday 18th December with 18 matches taking place simultaneously across Europe, as the final standings in the league phase are determined.

The goal for all will be to finish in the top eight which guarantees direct passage into the round-of-16. The teams that end up between 9th and 24th will need to play an extra play-off round, while those that finish outside the top 24 will be eliminated.

Last season, all teams with 12+ points qualified for the last 16, while Cercle Brugge sneaked into the top eight with 11. Eight points were needed to make the top 24, although four of the five clubs on seven points also progressed into the play-off round.

Finishing as high as possible in the league does in theory offer a more favourable path in the knockout stage, and last season’s league phase winners Chelsea went on to win the competition. However, Real Betis also made it to the final, despite finishing only 15th in the league and having to negotiate the play-off round.

19th-26th February 2026 – Knockout phase play-offs

Clubs that finish between 9th and 16th in the league phase will be paired with clubs who finish between 17th and 24th, with the higher-ranked sides having home advantage in the second legs.

The ties will be played in the final two weeks of February, with the winners progressing into the round-of-16.

27th February 2026 – Knockout phase draw

Another of the Conference League key dates is Friday 27th February 2026 as this is when the round-of-16 ties will be drawn, and the entire bracket set up for the remainder of the competition.

It will be a partially pre-determined draw given much depends on the final Conference league standings in the league phase. For example, the teams that finish 1st and 2nd will already know that they’ll be playing one of the winners of play-off ties involving the 15th and 16th place teams, although a draw will still take place to decide who is paired with who.

The top two clubs in the league phase will be on opposite sides of the draw meaning they won’t be able to face each other until the final.

12th-19th March 2026 – Round-of-16

The UECL schedule really kicks into life in the middle of March with the remaining teams meeting in the round-of-16 with ties played in successive weeks. The top-eight clubs from the league phase will be at home in the second legs.

This is where the standard is likely to step up a gear, and some of the stronger teams who may have rotated heavily in the league phase, are now more likely to field their better players.

9th-16th April 2026 – Quarter-finals

Rayo Vallecano’s Conference League schedule could see them play three games in April if they progress through the earlier rounds in the competition. While the Madrid club have very little European experience, they’ll still be one of the stronger teams in the 2025/26 UECL and Iñigo Perez’s side will be hoping to make it to at least the quarter-finals.

Given the predetermined bracket, there’ll be no need for another Conference League draw and fans of the teams involved will be able to plot their potential paths to Leipzig by this point.

30th April – 7th May 2026 – Semi-finals

There’ll be two UEFA Conference League fixtures on the final day of April as the semi-finals commence. Fiorentina have reached this stage in each of the last three seasons, and they’ve somehow managed to take up Italy’s solitary Conference League slot in four straight seasons meaning they’ll be strong contenders to reach at least this point again.

Two-time European champions Nottingham Forest will also be among the favourites to reach the last four, and English clubs have won the competition in two of the last three seasons.

27th May 2026 – Conference League final in Leipzig

After literally 100s of Conference League games over more than 10 months, the competition will reach its climax with the final in Leipzig on Wednesday 27th May 2026.

The good news for fans of the teams involved is that the Red Bull Arena is the largest stadium to ever host the Conference League final, with a capacity of just over 45,000 for European games. It’s actually larger than the Besiktas stadium which will host the final of the 2025/26 Europa League.

Chelsea and Betis were allocated 12,300 tickets each for last season’s final in Wroclaw, and the teams that make it to Leipzig are likely to receive a fraction more than that.

Supporters may also be able to buy some tickets directly via UEFAwhile you’ll also be able to buy resale 2026 Conference League final tickets on Helloticketsalthough any purchases made via third-party sites are done at your own risk.