How the UEFA Conference League has brought a different vibe to European football

Quiz question: how many of European football’s 55 national associations have been represented in the group or league phase of a senior UEFA club competition? It’s a surprisingly high number (be patient, all will be revealed) and one that could climb higher still as the Conference League continues to open doors for teams across the continent.

When the Conference League kicked off in 2021, one of its key aims was to involve more clubs and their fans from more nations. Four years on, teams from Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Iceland, Kosovo, Liechtenstein and Lithuania have all flown their nations’ flag for the first time in European club football proper. Northern Ireland and Wales were also represented this season, further proof that the Conference League is delivering on expectations – and then some.

"This is amazing," said Larne fan Robert Hutchison, ahead of his side’s meeting with Shamrock Rovers on Matchday 2. Hutchison can remember being taken to games as a kid by his dad as far back as 1973. Over half a century later, he was about to watch them become the first Northern Irish side to play a home match in the group or league phase.

"This is the best era in our 135-year history. I just can’t believe it – to get to the group stage of a European tournament! We had hoped we could maybe qualify for Europe at some stage in the past, but it’s just been totally unreal."

Danny Williams during The New Saints v Fiorentina in the league phaseUEFA via Getty Images

Players too are living the moment to the max. Take 24-year-old midfielder Danny Williams, for example, after The New Saints became the first side from the Welsh league to qualify.

It’s not just the smaller clubs and nations that have risen to this newest challenge on the European stage. You only had to see the joy on the faces of the fans and players of Roma, West Ham and Olympiacos – the first three teams to lift the Conference League trophy – to understand that. "It was amazing," says Tobias Hedtstück, UEFA’s chief of club competitions, recalling the final in 2024, when Olympiacos beat Fiorentina to become the first Greek side to win a senior European club trophy. "No one will forget the celebrations in Piraeus."

Olympiacos skipper Kostas Fortounis lifts the trophy in Athens in May 2024Francois Nel/Getty Image

A successful new format

Hedtstück is one part of the team behind the creation of the Conference League. He is relaxed when we meet and has every reason to be as another successful campaign reaches its climax. Of course, this season has been different again. The format change and introduction of the league phase brought new challenges but, most importantly, it has amplified the values that have made the Conference League so successful.

Thirty-six teams kicked off in the new league phase, compared to 32 in the old group stage. And rather than playing three teams home and away, each side now faces six different clubs, adding to the sense of adventure in a competition that is all about new experiences. There is also a greater competitive balance in the new format, and with every team linked in a single league, every goal and every result matters, adding to the drama.

Helping hand for smaller teams

The benefits for clubs from smaller associations are clear: a new route to European football, greater exposure and, on a wider scale, the chance to gain club coefficient points to enhance an association’s ranking. But Hedtstück admits to being pleasantly surprised by how all clubs have embraced the competition as well.

"I hadn’t expected all the clubs to be so keen," he says. "I think everybody was surprised by the success in the first two seasons. It helped that José Mourinho desperately wanted to win it with Roma, for example. He wanted to be the first coach to win all three club competitions. And we had some great, unexpected results from the beginning – for example Bodø/Glimt beating Roma earlier that same season. We had a wide mix of teams. The competitive balance is great. And, of course, it gives teams from many different countries a chance to win a trophy."

Heidenheim made their European debut in the 2024/25 Conference LeagueUEFA via Getty Images

It is that mix between big and small, experienced and inexperienced, that has already allowed the Conference League to assume an identity of its own. If the Champions League, to quote its tag line, is for the best of the best, and the Europa League is for teams aspiring to emulate them, the Conference League turns the spotlight on a different aspect of the European club game. "It’s a wonderful addition to the more ‘shiny’ world of the Champions League," says Hedtstück. "It’s a different vibe."

Hedtstück uses the example of Heidenheim to illustrate his point. The German club were promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time in 2023 but were already competing in Europe this season. "Such a special club," he says. "The same people have been working there for 20, 25 years. You just feel it in the stadium. It’s different and it’s fantastic."

A truly European competition

Every season, more clubs are getting the chance to experience the Conference League for themselves. So, back to that question we posed at the start. How many of UEFA’s 55 member associations have been represented in the group or league phase of a senior European club competition?

Hedtstück has the answer. "Before the start of the Conference League, we had 39 nations represented. At the end of the first three seasons of the Conference League, it was 49, and after the first season of the new format, we have had 51. That’s great."

So watch this space – if the first four years of the Conference League are anything to go by, it can only be a matter of time before every European country has tasted the special magic of UEFA competition action.