Europa Conference Play-Off Round

Update: 1 August 2022. Following the potential clubs in the Play Off round being grouped for the draw

Match tickets are now on sale for the home leg of our Europa Conference Play Off matches, even though we don’t know who the opposition will be – or whether the home match will be played on either 18th August or 25th August.

We won’t know which date the home match will be until the draw for the Play Off round is made on 2nd August. We also won’t know our actual opponent until the 3rd round matches are concluded on 11th August.  That might mean that there might be less than 7 days to arrange travel for a potential away match on 18th August.

 

Who could we be playing?

The 2nd qualifying round (Main Path) has now been completed so we await the winners of the 3rd qualifying rounds to see who our opponenta will be.

The 3rd Qualifying Round features nine new entrants and the 45 second qualifying round (Main path) winners.  The 27 winners of these matches will progress to the Play Off round where they are joined by the Mighty Hammers, plus Villarreal, Fiorentina, FC Köln and OGC Nice, plus 2 teams eliminated from Europa League third qualifying round.

The 3rd round matches are concluded on 11th August.  Only then will we know who our opponents will be.

 

How does the seeding work?

Seeding is based upon a club’s performance in the preceding 5 years in UEFA club competitions. Points are awarded for wins, draws and how far a club progresses in the various competitions. 

A club’s seeding points are based upon the higher of the total points a club has accumulated in the last 5 years of UEFA competition, or the average country co-efficient over the last 5 years,  if that is higher than the club’s co-efficient.  West Ham’s co-efficient is 21.0 – basically the points we were awarded for last season’s Europa League performance.  However, England’s country co-efficient is 21.328 so that becomes our co-efficient used for this season’s competition.

 

Who could we play and who not?

Half of the 34 participating clubs in the Play Off round (Main Path) will be seeded. Villarreal who join at the Play Off round are the top seed. There are also 6 other clubs that are currently participating in the 3rd qualifying round that have a higher club coefficient than West Ham. Because the draw for the play-off round is made before the results of the 3rd qualifying round are known, clubs of the 3rd qualifying round are seeded by the highest ranking of the 2 clubs involved in each match.  So even if a higher ranked club loses their 3rd round match, their opponent have their coefficient regardless. The 2 clubs that are eliminated from the Europa League 3rd qualifying round join the Play Off round and Partizan Belgrade have a higher club coefficient should they lose their match and drop down to the Conference. At worst, that means that West Ham will be the 9th ranked club and therefore we will be seeded for the Play Off round so we will not be drawn to play against any of these other seeded clubs with their coefficient:

Villarreal (Esp) - 78.00
FC Basel (Swi) - 55.00
Slavia Praha (Cze) - 52.00
Young Boys (Sui) - 37.0
AZ Alkmaar (Ned) - 28.50
The losers of the Europa League match between AEK Larnaca (Cyp) - 7.50 / Partizan Belgrade (Srb) - 24.50
Istanbul Basaksehir (Tur) - 25.00
Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Isr) - 24.50
West Ham United (Eng) - 21.328
Molde FK (Nor) - 19.00
. . . . .

The potential Play Off round seeded and unseeded teams have now been divided up into groups, principally to ensure that teams from the same association are not drawn against each other. West Ham will face the winners of one of following five third round qualifying ties.

Here is who we could be drawn against at this stage.

  • Winners of AIK (Sweden) vs Shkendija (North Macedonia)

  • Winners of Riga (Latvia) vs Gil Vicente (Portugal)

  • Winners of Wolfsberger (Austria) vs Gzira United (Malta)

  • Winners of Paide Linnameeskond (Estonia) vs Anderlecht (Belgium)

  • Winners of Viborg (Denmark) vs B36 Torshavn (Faroe Islands)

On the 2nd August the draw will determine which of the above pairs of teams we will be playing against.

How do we know whether we are at home or away for the first leg?

The 34 teams in the Play Off round (Main Path) are split into 17 seeded and 17 unseeded teams. These have been further sub-divided for the draw principally to ensure that teams from the same country association are kept apart from being drawn against each other.  The seeded teams are placed in one bowl and the unseeded teams in another bowl.  One ball is taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl, where they are shuffled. The first team drawn from this bowl plays its first match at home against the second team drawn.

 

The Europa Conference League play-off round draw is at 13:00 BST on 2nd August, from UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

WHUST