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Who is in the Conference League draw and who is in each pot?

Our Ask Me Anything team explains the details for Friday's league phase draw for the 2026-27 Conference League

Who is in the Conference League draw and who is in each pot?

The Conference League draw for the 2026-27 season will take place on Friday, 28 August at 12:00 BST in Monaco. The draw will be held alongside the Europa League, with the Conference League being the second competition to be drawn. The competition will consist of 36 teams, each of whom will play six league phase matches.

The teams will be divided into six pots, with pot one containing the highest-ranked teams and pot six containing the lowest-ranked teams. The pot placements are based on the club's UEFA club coefficient ranking from the five-season period ending at the end of the 2025-26 season. Each team will play one match against each of the other teams in their pot, and they will not be allowed to play against any team from their own country.

The top eight teams in the league phase will qualify for the last 16 of the competition. The teams ranked ninth to 24th will enter a play-off knockout round, while the bottom 12 teams will be eliminated after the league phase. The top pot of the draw, which includes Atalanta, Braga, Ajax, Freiburg, Monaco, and Copenhagen, features teams from Europe's highest-ranked clubs.

Brighton and Hove Albion are the only English representative in the draw, earning their spot alongside Midtjylland, Red Star Belgrade, Gent, Panathinaikos, and Pafos.

Getafe, a La Liga side, is among the six teams in pot three, alongside Lugano, KuPS, Twente, Lincoln Red Imps, and Borac Banja Luka. Heart of Midlothian, a Scottish side, is in pot four, with Sint-Truiden, Brann, Kairat, Trabzonspor, and Universitatea Craiova completing that pot. In pot five, there are Jablonec, who qualified by beating Rangers on penalties, Riga, Hadjuk Split, Nordsjaelland, AGF, and Inter d Escaldes.

Finally, pot six includes Thun and CSKA Sofia, with four new clubs to the European club competition, Kauno Zalgiris, Mjallby AIF, Iberia 1999, and Egnatia.

Written by urgent.news from BBC Sport Football's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.

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