After starting the previous two seasons in the 1st qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, the 2024/2025 season will see the Plemići (Zrinjski) begin their campaign in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League.
Ahead of the draws for the first and second qualifying rounds, scheduled for June 18 and 19, here are the key details about the new format of the UEFA Conference League and all the important dates.
UEFA launched its third club competition in 2021 under the name UEFA Europa Conference League. Following titles won by Italian side Roma, English club West Ham, and Greek team Olympiacos, the competition will now be known as the UEFA Conference League, with the word “Europa” officially dropped for simplicity as it was rarely used.
The new season also brings a new competition format. The group stage, previously consisting of 32 clubs, will now feature 36 clubs as per UEFA’s latest reform across all three competitions.
The 36 clubs will not be divided into groups but will compete in a single league. Unlike the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, where participants in the final league stage play a minimum of eight matches against eight different opponents, clubs in the UEFA Conference League will play six matches against six different opponents, one from each of six different seedings during the draw. The top eight teams will advance directly to the Round of 16, while the teams ranked 9th to 24th will play off for the remaining eight spots.
The path to the final stage involves challenging qualifications. As the winner of the Cup and the second-placed team in the WWin Liga BiH, HŠK Zrinjski will start from the 2nd qualifying round and need to eliminate three opponents to repeat last season’s success. With a coefficient of 9.500, Zrinjski is already confirmed to be seeded in the second and third qualifying rounds.
Predicting our potential opponents at the start of the European journey is tricky due to the involvement of sixty clubs. Our opponent could be one of twenty clubs starting from the second round, the winner of one of the fourteen first-round ties, or a loser from six first-round ties of the UEFA Europa League.
Qualification Matches
- First round: July 11 and 18
- Second round: July 25 and August 1
- Third round: August 8 and 15
- Play-Off: August 22 and 29
Draw Dates
- First round: June 18
- Second round: June 19
- Third round: July 22
- Play-Off: August 5
- UCL: August 30
UEFA Conference League Matches
- First round: October 3
- Second round: October 24
- Third round: November 7
- Fourth round: November 28
- Fifth round: December 12
- Sixth round: December 19
