Europa Conference League Final Host Stadiums

Founded in 2021, the Europa Conference League has been a storming success since its inception. Despite being met with a wave of initial scepticism, the Conference League has shown itself to be a tournament of consistently high entertainment value while also providing a platform for Europe's mid-tier clubs to compete for silverware in high-stakes games.

The competition is UEFA's third-tiered tournament, behind the Champions League and the Europa League, and primarily involves teams from UEFA's lower-ranked member nations, while also including lower-ranked teams from the higher-ranked member nations.

In its first year, the competition was won by Serie A side AS Roma, who beat Feyenoord 1-0 in the final. In 2023, West Ham United were crowned champions as they beat Fiorentina 2-1 in a dramatic final, before Fiorentina once again came up agonisingly short in the 2024 final as they lost 1-0 to Olympiakos in extra-time.

The 2024/25 edition of the Conference League is currently in its qualifying stage, which is set to conclude on the 29th of August. The competition proper begins on the 3rd of October.

The competition proper will involve 36 teams, with the format tweaked following the first three editions of the competition. Similar to the Champions League and the Europa League, the Conference League will initially entail a 36-team league phase where each side plays 6 different teams - 3 at home and 3 away - where the top 8 teams at the end of the league phase will progress to the round of 16, while teams placed 9-24 will contest a playoff round that will determine the remaining 8 teams that will contest the last 16.

From there, we'll have the quarter-finals (10th & 17th April 2025), semi-finals (1st & 8th May 2025) and the final (28th May 2025).

One of the benefits of the Conference League for fans is that it gives travelling supporters the opportunity to visit more obscure European cities they wouldn't necessarily have otherwise considered visiting, and that's been quite pertinent in one or two of the venues selected to host prior finals of the competition.

In 2022, the capital of Albania, Tirana, was the chosen host city and the selected venue was the Arena Kombëtare. With a capacity of 22,500, the stadium has a UEFA Category Four rating and is the home of Klubi i Futbollit Tirana and the official home stadium of the Albanian National Football Team.

2023's chosen venue was in the Czech capital, Prague. A much more famous European city, Prague boasts a number of high-quality arenas but the stadium selected was the Fortuna Arena, home to Czech giants Slavia Prague. The venue opened only in 2008 and is a modern ground with a capacity of 19,370 and is located in the east of the city.

Last year's final was unique in that one of the finalists, and the eventual winners, Olympiakos, were playing in their home city of Athens. However, it was not Olympiakos' stadium that was selected to host the final, but instead the Agia Sophia Stadium, otherwise known as the AEK Arena, home to AEK Athens. The ground is by far the biggest of any venue to host the final of this competition so far with a capacity of 32,500 and is a brand-new ground, opening only in 2022. Since its opening, it has become the new official stadium of the Greek National Football Team.

Fans will have been hoping for some mouthwatering European cities to pencil into their calendars for the future finals of this competition, and when you look at the line-up, it's hard to argue they haven't got just that.

First up comes this season's final, which will take place in Wrocław, Poland. A city in the southwest of Poland, Wrocław is a university city with a wealth of history and was selected as a host city of Euro 2012. Its biggest arena, Stadion Wrocław, will host the 2025 final, and it represents yet another levelling up in terms of venue size, with its capacity standing at 42,771, the third largest in the whole of Poland. The stadium was purpose-built for Euro 2012 and is the home stadium of Śląsk Wrocław.

2026 will see the competition's final move to Eastern Germany, with RB Leipzig's Red Bull Arena the chosen venue. The Red Bull Arena can hold 47,069 people, again continuing the pattern of increasing the size of the host stadium each year, and is a very modern ground at just 19 years of age. On top of being the home ground of RB Leipzig, the Red Bull Arena sometimes hosts fixtures of the German National Football Team and was a host stadium at both Euro 2024 and the 2006 World Cup.

The last of the scheduled venues comes in 2027, when the Conference League final will make its way to Istanbul, Turkey. A fine destination for fans, Istanbul is a city steeped in over 2000 years of history with an illustrious artistic past, a world-class culinary reputation and some striking architecture, but more importantly, it's a city mad for football. The final will take place at the Beşiktaş Stadium, home to Süper Lig club Beşiktaş, which has a capacity of 42,590. Unlike the Ataturk Stadium which hosted the 2023 Champions League final, the Beşiktaş Stadium has a much more central location and is easily accessible for fans via public transport from the centre of Istanbul.

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