West Ham won their first European trophy since 1965 when they beat Fiorentina in the UEFA Europa Conference League final earlier this month – and now the competition is set for a revamp
The UEFA Europa Conference League will be renamed as the UEFA Conference League from the 2024/25 season, it has been announced.
European club football’s third-tier competition was launched in 2021 to increase UEFA’s offering beyond the Champions League and Europa League. It has overcome some criticism to produce two entertaining campaigns, with Roma and West Ham providing high-profile winners.
Jose Mourinho guided Roma to their first continental title since the Fairs Cup in 1961 in the inaugural season, beating Feyenoord 1-0 in the final in May 2022. That was followed by West Ham’s first European trophy since 1965 when they overcame Fiorentina 2-1 thanks to Jarrod Bowen’s 90th-minute winner earlier this month.
At a UEFA executive committee meeting in Nyon, Switzerland, the organisers voted through the name change, which will take effect before the 2024/25 season.
A statement from UEFA said: “Introduced under the ‘Europa’ umbrella at the start of the 2021-24 commercial cycle, the new competition has quickly established itself amongst a broad audience after two successful seasons.
“Research amongst fans as well as commercial partners has found that removing ‘Europa’ from the name of the competition will enable further development as a stand-alone competition and this proposed change was approved by the UEFA Executive Committee. It will be effective in the new cycle, as of the 2024-25 season.
“Together with the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Conference League will continue to deliver ‘Thursday Night Football’ to fans across Europe and beyond.
“A strong link between the competitions will remain in place as both brand identities will remain very close, and both competitions will continue to be sold to broadcast partners and sponsors together.”
