Football
UEFA confirms new Europa League 2 club competition to start in 2021
New tournament will give another Premier League club the chance to get into Europe.
UEFA have announced that a third club competition with the working title ‘Europa League 2’ will be launched in 2021.
The tournament has been scheduled to take place on a Thursday, with some of the matches kicking-off at 3.30pm and it will give more Premier League and lower European sides the chance to get into Europe.
It will have a structure that will mirror the format of a revised 32-team Europa League, which is eight groups of four teams and the winners advancing into the last 16.
There will then be a play-off before that round for the teams who finish second in the group and sides who finish third in the groups of the higher tournament.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin has said demand for participation at European level has led to the creation of the new tournament.
“The new UEFA club competition makes UEFA’s club competitions more inclusive than ever before,” he said.
“There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages.
“This competition was born out of ongoing dialogue with clubs throughout the European Club Association.”
The 32-team competition will start at the beginning of the new UEFA cycle, which runs from 2021-2024.
Eight groups of four will be whittled down to a round of 16, following a play-off between the second-placed teams and those who finish third in the Europa League.
Quarter-finals and semi-finals will then follow, before a 141st game, the final.
The winner of the new tournament will then earn a place in the Europa League.
ECA chairman Andrea Agnelli welcomed the news, saying: “I am delighted that the UEFA Executive Committee has agreed to the changes ECA member clubs have been calling for.
“We believe that this outcome ensures that the UEFA club competitions continue to develop in a manner which is fair and balanced, meeting the demands and requirements necessary to ensure that football remains the number one sport globally.
“I would like to add that this whole process is testimony to the strong collaborative efforts of both ECA and UEFA at all levels.”