A meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee, which includes Andriy Pavelko, took place today at UEFA headquarters in Nyon. During this meeting, several important decisions were made.

Indeed, the final of the UEFA Women's Champions League 2025 will be hosted by Lisbon's "Estádio José Alvalade" (the home arena of Sporting).

The final of the UEFA Conference League-2024 will be held at Athens AEK's local stadium, "Aigospachtia." The final decision on this matter will be made by November 2023 after a trial period.

The final of the UEFA Conference League-2025 will take place in Wroclaw, Poland, at the "Stadion Wrocław," which is the home ground of local Śląsk Wrocław.

Poland will host the final stage of the 2025 European Championship for women's under-19 teams.

Format of the UEFA World Cup Qualification

UEFA has recommended to FIFA to use the following format for selecting 16 European national teams for the 2026 World Cup.

Twelve groups, each consisting of five or four teams, will play from March to November 2025 in a traditional group stage system. The twelve group winners will receive direct tickets to the final stage. Twelve teams finishing second and the four best group winners of UEFA Nations League 2024/2025 who finish below second place in the European qualification group stage, will participate in knockout mini-tournaments.

The knockout mini-tournaments will consist of one-legged semi-finals and finals and will be held within a single window for national team matches. Sixteen participants will be divided into four playoff brackets of four each.

Also, the UEFA Executive Committee has approved several important amendments to the Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Rules, which will come into effect on July 1, 2023. More details — here.

Starting from the 2024/2025 season, the official name of the UEFA Conference League will be "UEFA Conference League" instead of "UEFA Europa Conference League."

In addition, the UEFA Executive Committee has approved minimum standards for national women's teams. More information on this will be provided in due time.

New Format of the UEFA Youth League

The tournament will be adapted to the new format of UEFA's main club competitions. Thirty-six youth teams representing clubs from the main tournament, the UEFA Champions League 2024/2025 (Champions Path), will participate.

The path of national champions is being reformed so that it includes winners of all UEFA associations' youth championships (currently only the top 32 associations participate).

If a club qualifies for both the Champions Path and the National Champions Path, they will automatically be included in the Champions Path. The spot vacated in the National Champions Path will be taken by the second-placed team from the corresponding league.

The winner of the UEFA Youth League will automatically qualify for the National Champions Path if they do not qualify through the Champions Path.

The tournament in the Champions Path will fully mirror the adult competition's stage — participants will play six matches, three at home and three away.

The tournament in the National Champions Path will consist of three rounds held according to a knockout format with two-legged ties (home and away). Clubs from associations with the highest ranking will start the competition from the second round.

After completing these rounds, starting from the 1/16 finals stage, a knockout phase will be conducted where the winner of each tie is determined in one match.

Clubs ranked from 1st to 6th (Champions Path) will immediately qualify for the 1/16 finals and play against clubs ranked 17th to 22nd.

Clubs ranked 7th to 16th in the Champions Path will face teams that have qualified through the National Champions Path.

Clubs ranked below 23rd in the Champions Path and those eliminated in knockout matches of the National Champions Path will leave the tournament.

The tournament will end with a final stage involving four teams (semi-finals and finals), which will be held at a neutral venue.

Pairs for 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 finals will be determined by draw.

The next meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee will take place on September 26 in Limassol (Cyprus).