Why do you need a tournament?
The creation of the League of Conferences (LC) was initially misunderstood by many fans.
The idea of organizing the third most important European Cup with a dubious line-up seemed controversial.
However, the logic of UEFA is clear: the leadership of European football wanted to give a chance to prove themselves in the international arena to representatives of those countries that are usually unable to break into the group stage of the Champions League and Europa League.
Including due to the reduction of the members of the latter (from 48 to 32), the LC was launched.
32 teams will also perform at the group stage of the new tournament.
At the same time, there is a direct relationship between the competitions, as well as between the Champions League and the LE.
The teams that finished third in their quartets will play in the Conference League playoffs.
Thus, all three European cups began to play out according to the same system.
It is also worth noting that such a number of continental tournaments are not uncommon in Europe.
Until 1999, the Champions League, the UEFA Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup were played.
And until 2008, there was the Intertoto Cup, the best participants of which received tickets to the UEFA Cup.
Now, thanks to the appearance of the League of Conferences, LE has become much more privileged due to the elimination of not the most prominent clubs even at the qualifying stage.
What is its highlight?
The teams of the countries of the second and third football echelons, instead of an early departure from the European cups, were given the opportunity to continue playing, earn money and points for their association against the table of UEFA coefficients.
Actually, the League of Conferences has become a kind of tournament for the "poor", in which strong middle peasants are able to shoot, who previously mostly stopped in the early stages of the playoffs.
And already in the debut season in the group stage there were a lot of sophisticated European fighters who can compete for the final victory: Belgian Gent, Bulgarian CSKA, Danish Copenhagen, Swiss Basel.
The Netherlands are represented by three teams at once: AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord and Vitesse.
It is also worth noting that the champions of 12 countries reached the main round of the league: Finland (HIK), Czech Republic (Slavia), Israel (Maccabi Haifa), Romania (CFR Cluj), Norway (Bodø-Glimt) , Slovakia (Slovan), Cyprus (Omonia), Slovenia (Mura), Kazakhstan (Kairat), Armenia (Alashkert), Estonia (Flora) and Gibraltar (Lincoln).
Teams from 26 countries will compete for the trophy.
For comparison, in LE - 21, and in the Champions League - only 15.
And it is already obvious that the representatives of the "small associations" really got a chance that they could not have even in the Europa League.
Eight teams will play for the first time in the group stage of European competitions, and for the representatives of Armenia, Estonia and Gibraltar it is a debut at this level.
The exit of Lincoln, representing the British overseas territory, which was admitted to UEFA less than ten years ago, stands apart.
Now the Gibraltar club will have a chance to prove themselves, and the footballers of PAOK, Copenhagen and Slovan will play at the modest Victoria Stadium, located between the foot of the picturesque cliff and the local airport.
Why is the tournament important for Russia?
Unfortunately, Russian fans in the 2021/22 season will watch the tournament without much interest, since Rubin and Sochi did not even make it to the fourth qualifying round.
This dealt a blow to the country's position in the UEFA coefficient table, because it was assumed that it was in the new European Cup that domestic representatives would be able to score the most points.
The fans hoped that the third and fourth RPL teams would feel as comfortable as possible here (taking into account the decrease in the level of competition) and show decent results.
The reality turned out to be much harsher.
For two "Rubin" and "Sochi" scored only 3.5 points and contributed to the fact that Russia dropped from seventh place in the ranking to tenth.
Further decline is inevitable.
Moreover, the point is not at all a modest lag behind Ukraine, represented by Dynamo and Shakhtar in the Champions League.
The results of the last five seasons are taken into account in the ranking.
In the next season, the country will “burn out” the 2017/18 season, in which domestic clubs scored a record 12,600 points in total.
In this regard, a departure from the top 15 is very likely, which will leave the RPL champion without a direct ticket to the most prestigious tournament.
Thus, three Russian teams will have to compete in the Conference League and go as far as possible, especially since the third and fourth RPL teams will continue to start from qualification.
It is the demonstration of superiority over average rivals that should help the country rise to its original positions and return the previous quota.
Who is the favorite?
The Conference League would hardly be considered a full-fledged tournament if there were no place for strong clubs in it. The leading European championships are represented by Roma (Serie A), Union (Bundesliga), Rennom (Ligue 1) and Tottenham (Premier League). The last two were in the same group with the Dutch "Vitesse" and the Slovenian "Moore". Of course, Londoners and Romans are still the main favorites of the tournament, followed by the French.
It is unlikely that ten years ago, Jose Mourinho could have imagined that he would have to fight for the third European Cup, but it happened. The ex-forward of Rostov Eldor Shomurodov will help him. The Uzbek forward at Roma started right off the bat and scored the winning goal against Trabzonspor in the first away match. Moreover, this goal was his debut in the new team. Before thinking about the playoffs, Roma must successfully complete the group stage, in which their rivals will be CSKA Sofia, Zorya Luhansk and Bodo Glimt.
Mourinho's former team, Tottenham, are also serious. Just a couple of years ago, Londoners played in the Champions League final, and last season with great difficulty made their way to the European competition. The team got the ticket only due to the fact that the winner of the English League Cup "Manchester City" and the winner of the FA Cup "Leicester" secured their participation in them through the national championship. So the two-time champion of England solved the problem, taking only seventh place in the Premier League.
Finally, the fans of "Union" definitely cannot be accused of condescending attitude towards the new tournament.
Last season, the Berliners also took seventh place in the Bundesliga and got the opportunity to play in European competitions for the first time in 20 years.
In qualifying, the German team turned out to be stronger than the Finnish KuPS.
After an away defeat and then a draw at the home stadium, fans put on an impressive fire show.
However, it will not be easy for Union to reach the playoffs, as it got into a fairly even quartet with Slavia, Maccabi from Haifa and Feyenoord.
What to expect from neighbors?
Separately, it is worth mentioning the representatives of countries from the post-Soviet space.
Alashkert achieved historic success thanks to Russian coach Alexander Grigoryan, who headed Tambov, Anzhi, SKA-Khabarovsk and other teams.
Now the specialist will try to get the Yerevanians out of the group with HIK, Austrian LASK and Maccabi from Tel Aviv (the first match ended in a major away defeat from the Israeli club - 1: 4).
Flora's result is remarkable due to the fact that there is not a single foreign footballer in the squad of Tallinn.
Only Estonians are gathered in the club, and the captain is the local legend Konstantin Vasiliev, who has held 134 meetings for the national team.
But it will be difficult for the Balts to go further, since they got into a quartet with Gent, Partizan and Cypriot Anorthosis.
Kazakhstani "Kairat" and Azerbaijani "Karabakh" drew lots in the same group with "Basel" and another representative of Cyprus "Omonia".
If Aghdam have already performed in the group stage of European cups, then for Almaty it is a debut.
It is curious that Kairat started their performance in the Champions League under the guidance of acting mentor Kirill Keker, and in the main round of the Conference League they will play under the leadership of Kurban Berdyev, who has resumed his coaching career.
On the field, the main conductor of his ideas will be Wagner Love, who continues to score regularly at 37.
Finally, Zorya, which left the Europa League after a meeting with Vienna's Rapid, will fight for Ukraine.
Viktor Skripnik's charges have played three times in the main round of the second most important European Cup, and now they will try their hand in the third.