What is the Conference League won by Roma and what happens now

After 61 years, Roma returns to raise a European trophy. It was in fact 1961 when the Giallorossi team raised the Fairs Cup to the sky, the ancestor of the Uefa Cup. Since then, between disappointments and missed chances, Roma’s European palmares had remained dry.

photo source: via Adkronos

Victory over Feyenoord in this way it gives new life to a city, and to its fans, and allows an Italian team to return as a protagonist in Europe. Twelve years after the Nerazzurri trebleJosè Mourinho is once again the protagonist of the Italian triumph: giving Rome the first Conference League in its history. But how did this competition start? And what are the differences with the Europa League?

What is the Conference League?

The competition, recently born, saw its first edition go on stage this year. After the Champions League and the Europa League, this is the third European tournament for prestige. The Conference was created to offer an additional continental tournament to teams not qualified for the Europa League, and for the eliminated in the group stage, as well as for clubs eliminated in the Champions League preliminary round. The one in Tirana was therefore the first ever final of the competition, and the hope is that Rome may have given way to an all-Italian trail of successes.

Conference League: trophy and differences with the Europa League

Roma takes home the first final in history of this new competition, winning the coveted trophy, unveiled on May 24th: The cup weighs 11 kilograms, measures 57 centimeters in height, and is made up of 32 hexagonal pins, one for each team participating in the group stage, which curve from the base of the trophy. Economicallythe club that manages to go all the way in the competition takes home a figure close to 10 million euros, also considering the final.

Strongly related to the UEFA Europa League, at the marketing level, the tournament uses similar logos and graphics, as well as the introductory hymn itself. For the rest, the Conference League it is not that different from what we have seen in other European competitions. There are four qualifying rounds before reaching a group stage with 32 teams divided into eight groups. The peculiarity is that only the eight leaders of the groups have a guaranteed place in the second round of the competition. While the runners-up must overcome an additional round against the third-placed ones in the groups of the Europa League. The eight winners of this roundcalled the playoffs, are then drawn for the Round of 16 of the Conference League.

Conference League: what happens now that Roma have won

The winner of the Conference League is automatically promoted to the group stage of the Europa League. Among the advantages of the Italian victorythere was to be able to bring 8 teams to Europe next year, but obviously it will not. Roma, winning the finalwon a place in the Europa League but, thanks to sixth place in the Italian league, the qualification was already in his pocket.

The seventh place is in fact the last valid to enter Europe, more precisely to participate in the Conference League. If therefore Roma had been classified as seventh, as the winner of the final, they would have left the slot free, by directly accessing the Europa Leaguethus allowing the team classified immediately after to be able to access the Conference and thus increasing to 8 the number of Italian teams playing in Europe next season.