Draw and play-offs

• SC Freiburg enter the competition in the play-off round. The draw will take place on Monday, 3rd August. UEFA has announced that the seedings, groups and procedure will be published here from 08:30 CEST on Monday.
• The draw begins at 14:00 CEST on Monday and will be streamed live by UEFA. You can watch it here.
• By Monday afternoon, we will know whether SC Freiburg will be at home in the second leg or host thir first match at the Europa-Park Stadion.
• What we will not yet know is the identity of the opposition. Instead, the draw will determine which third qualifying round fixture will produce the team SC Freiburg face in the play-offs. You can find the third qualifying round fixtures here. These matches will be played on 6th and 13th August.
• The first leg of the play-off round will take place on 20th August, the Thursday before the first round of the DFB-Pokal. The second leg will be played a week later on 27th August.

Potential play-off opponents

• A total of 48 teams will compete in the play-off round.
• SC Freiburg’s strong club coefficient in UEFA’s five-year ranking means they are among the seeded teams and therefore cannot face another seeded side, such as Atalanta or AS Monaco.

League and knockout phases

• The league phase begins on 15th October and ends on 17th December. Unlike the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Champions League (eight), the UEFA Conference League has six league-phase matchdays.
• The knockout phase play-offs begin on 18th February 2027, with the round of 16 starting on 11th March 2027. The final will be held at Beşiktaş Park in Istanbul on 2nd June 2027.

Photo: Uefa / Picturepark