Nottingham Forest Conference League explainer: Dates, potential opponents and prize money

New York Times

a day ago

Nottingham Forest will be playing in Europe next season for the first time since 1995-96.
Though Nuno Espirito Santo's side narrowly missed out on the Champions League football they and the fans craved, their seventh-place finish confirms their spot in the final qualifying round for the league phase of the UEFA Conference League.
Here, The Athletic gives you the lowdown on how that competition works, who Forest might face in that play-off and what the overall schedule looks like.
The tournament has been running since the 2021-22 season, when it was introduced as UEFA's new third-tier European competition — below the Champions League and Europa League. Roma of Italy won the competition in its first season, to secure their only major UEFA trophy. This prompted the club's manager at the time, Jose Mourinho, to observe that they had 'made history'.
David Moyes then led West Ham United to a nail-biting win in 2023, calling it one of the biggest moments of his long career. The following year, Forest's sister club Olympiacos became the first Greek side to win a major UEFA trophy.
In the 2024-25 edition, which Chelsea won earlier this week, the Conference League — after the completion of four qualifying rounds — followed the Champions League and Europa League in adopting a league phase with all 36 competing teams in together instead of the pre-existing eight-groups-of-four. This format will be used next season, too.
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Each side played six different opponents (three games at home, three away), rather than the eight matches in the Champions League and Europa League, with the top eight in the final table advancing directly to the round of 16 and those sides who finish from ninth to 24th entering knockout stage play-offs, with the eight victors from those ties completing the last 16. The bottom 12 after the league phase are eliminated.
After the league phase, it is a straight two-leg, home-and-away knockout competition all the way to a one-off final in May.
Forest's play-off round tie will be held over two legs on August 21 and August 28, which is after the start of the new Premier League season. They will not find out who their opponents will be until the draw on August 4.
All 36 teams entering the league phase will do so by qualifying, with none being directly placed into the competition proper. The stage at which teams begin qualifying is based on their domestic association's club coefficient ranking, which is calculated by UEFA. England currently tops these rankings, ahead of Italy, Spain, Germany and France — which is why Forest will enter qualifying in the last round before the league phase. Before that, three qualifying rounds — which will decide who Forest might face in that play-off — will take place.
First qualifying round: June 17
Second qualifying round: June 18
Third qualifying round: July 21
Play-off round: August 4
First qualifying round: July 10 and 17
Second qualifying round: July 24 and 31
Third qualifying round: August 7 and 14
Play-off round: August 21 and 28
There are many possibilities.
The teams guaranteed to be in the play-off round — other than Forest — are Fiorentina, Germany's Mainz, Rayo Vallecano from Spain and France's Strasbourg. The top five nations in the association club coefficient rankings only have one team each in the competition, with all of them starting their involvement in the play-off round.
However, Forest will be seeded for the play-off round so will face, in theory, a side from the weaker half of the pot. This will not influence whether they have a home or away match in the tie's second leg, though.
There are places in qualifying given to clubs from all across the continent, ranging from AZ (the Netherlands), Santa Clara (Portugal), Dundee United (Scotland) and AEK Athens (Greece) to some genuine minnows, such as Araz-Naxcivan (Azerbaijan), Astana (Kazakhstan), St Patrick's Athletic (Republic of Ireland), Haverfordwest County (Wales), Calpe City Magpies (Gibraltar) and La Fiorita (San Marino). La Fiorita play in a town called Montegiardino, which has a population of around 1,000.
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Teams eliminated in certain qualifying rounds for the Champions League and Europa League will also join the party at various stages of the Conference League's qualification process.
So in short, Forest have no idea who they might be up against in that play-off.
The league-phase matches will take place on the following dates:
Matchday 1: October 2
Matchday 2: October 23
Matchday 3: November 6
Matchday 4: November 27
Matchday 5: December 11
Matchday 6: December 18
The knockout-stage ties will take place on the following dates:
Knockout phase play-offs: February 19 and 26
Round of 16: March 12 and 19
Quarter-finals: April 9 and 16
Semi-finals: April 30 and May 7
Final: May 27
League phase: August 29
Knockout phase play-offs: To be determined
Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final: February 27
The draws for the league phases of all three UEFA club competitions are now done via computer, to speed up the complicated process.
All roads for the 2025-26 competition lead to the Red Bull Arena in Leipzig, Germany. Home of Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, it has a capacity of just under 48,000 and hosted games at the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2024.
As well as the glory of a European trophy, the Conference League's winners are guaranteed a league-phase place in the following season's Europa League — unless they have already qualified for the Champions League by virtue of their domestic league position, as Chelsea have done this time.
As for the prize money, reaching the league phase of the 2024-25 Conference League earned you an estimated base fee of €3.2million (£2.7m; $3.6m), while each win in that league phase worth €400,000 and every draw €133,000. Teams who secured a top-eight finish in the league phase received another €400,000, while finishing from ninth to 24th earned €200,000. There was an €800,000 bonus for reaching the round of 16, €1.3m more for getting to the quarter-finals and €2.5m if your challenge ended in the semis. Runners-up Real Betis took €4m home to Spain and Chelsea received €7m.
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Some optimistic Forest fans have already been booking flights to, and hotels in, Leipzig for the dates around the final, on the off-chance that their team do play in that fixture in a year's time.
There is no possibility of Forest's sister club, Olympiacos, dropping down into the Conference League to potentially face them, as they will be in the Champions League as Greek title winners. This means there will be no conflict of interest for Evangelos Marinakis, who owns both clubs.
He had placed his shares in Forest in a blind trust and had planned to step away from having any influence in the running of the club, in preparation for both teams potentially being in the same European competition and in order to adhere to UEFA's rules on multi-club ownership, but this will no longer be necessary.
The bottom line is that Forest are playing in European competition for the first time since Frank Clark led them to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup (now the Europa League) in March 1996 where they lost to eventual winners Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.
The prize money and kudos may not be on the level they would have been if Forest had qualified for the Champions League, but the fans will be determined to enjoy the ride wherever on the continent it takes them. And as we have seen with other English teams in recent years, the chance to compete for a European trophy is not to be sniffed at.