UEFA on Wednesday renamed its third European club competition, the Europa League Conference launched in 2021-2022, to the “Conference League” from 2024, among a salvo of decisions by its executive committee.
The C4, intended to widen access to European evenings to small football countries excluded from the prestigious Champions League, “quickly imposed itself on a large audience after two successful seasons”, welcomes the body in a communicated.
But while the C3 is called the ‘Europa League’ and is also played on Thursday evenings, studies ‘carried out with supporters and commercial partners have revealed’ that simplifying the name of the C4 ‘will allow it to continue its development as a competition autonomous”, explains UEFA.
This decision will take effect from the 2024-25 season, the “new commercial cycle” of European competitions, which will also mark their transition to a mini-league system.
The UEFA executive has also designated the host cities for the C4 finals in 2024 and 2025, namely Athens in the new AEK stadium – provided that it passes a test phase until November 2023 – , then Wroclaw (Poland).
For women’s competitions, the José Alvalade XXI stadium in Lisbon will host the 2025 Champions League final, while Poland will host the Women’s Under-19 Euro in 2025.
Finally, on the accounting level, a delicate subject as the financial control body of clubs has to deal with variable rules and practices, UEFA has adopted two modifications: the registration of a new player must now be amortized over five years maximum – even if the contract exceeds this duration – and the exchanges of players will have to comply with international accounting rules, to prevent them from being used to artificially inflate the accounts of the clubs.
