UEFA Launches Third Club Competition Below Europa League Level

UEFA have announced they will launch a third club competition in 2021, sitting below the Champions League and Europa League levels.

Provisionally named the UEL2, it will invite a total of 32 teams into eight groups and result in some key changes for the Europa League as well, per Rob Harris of the Associated Press.

Matches will be played on Thursday and mirror the EL, which will see its size drop from 48 to 32 teams. Following the group stages a play-off round will take place between the EL's third-placed finishers and the runners-up in the UEL2, setting up the knockout stages.

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In the Europa League, the round of 32 will be replaced with a new system. The second-placed finishers from the group stage face clubs dropping out of the Champions League.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin explained the idea behind the new competition:

"The new UEFA club competition makes UEFA’s club competitions more inclusive than ever before. There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages.

"There was a widespread demand by all clubs to increase their chances of participating more regularly in European competition. This has been achieved with a strategic approach, and in accordance with UEFA's objective of having both more quality and more inclusivity in our club competitions."

The introduction of a third tournament marks a departure of the "less is more" approach UEFA have adopted in the last few decades. European football used to be littered with tournaments, but the organisation streamlined things to just two.

HLN's Kristof Terreur couldn't help but refer to one of the old cups:

UEFA previously expanded the European Championship to 24 teams and introduced the Nations League in a bid to create more fixtures for their calendar.

The new system should benefit the smaller nations in UEFA. Per Harris, the organisation guarantees at least 34 of its 55 federations will have at least one club in the group stages of a major tournament, compared to just 26 under the current system.