Aston Villa have qualified for the 2023/24 UEFA Conference League and will compete in the competition’s third edition this season. Here’s Football FanCast’s lowdown on everything fans need to know.

What is the Europa Conference League and how does it work?

The UEFA Conference League is a tournament introduced by UEFA for the 2021/22 season. It sits below the UEFA Europa League as the third-ranked competition in European football. There have been two winners thus far – AS Roma in 2022 and West Ham United in 2023.

178 teams compete for the trophy, with lower-ranked nations getting more clubs in the qualifying process. England get one place and it goes to their League Cup winner. Should the winner already qualify for European competition – as with Manchester United last season – the place instead goes to the 7th-placed English team.

Teams from the Europa League will drop down into the competition, too, at the play-offs, group stages and preliminary knockout rounds.

The competition has knockout rounds as qualifiers before a group stage consisting of eight groups of four. The winners from that go into the last 16, while the runners-up play against third-placed Europa League sides to determine the other eight teams.

Who will Aston Villa face in the Conference League?

Aston Villa managed to avoid the most dangerous teams in the group stage draw and can feel pretty confident about their chances. Pascal Jansen’s AZ Alkmaar are the top seeds in the group and represent Villa’s biggest challenge for top spot.

Both Legia Warsaw and Bosnian outfit Zrinjski feel like distant third and fourth here, though. Unai Emery will immediately target six points against both teams – we imagine the group comes down to the Villa v AZ fixtures.

And maybe not even that, to be honest. Alkmaar aren’t guaranteed to pick up the full six against Legia, even if they’ll expect to. Villa definitely feel like the greater certainty in that regard and could seal top spot relatively easily.

So you’d imagine Villa can be happy with the draw. They didn’t come up against the top-drawer first seeds like Lille or Frankfurt. They also managed to avoid the best third-pot team in Besiktas. It’s a group that, with a bit of luck, Villa could dominate.

What is the Europa Conference League draw in full?

Lille

Gent

Dinamo Zagreb

Club Brugge

AZ Alkmaar

Ferencváros

Frankfurt

Fenerbahçe

Slovan Bratislava

Maccabi Tel-Aviv

Viktoria Plzeň

Bodø/Glimt

Aston Villa

Fiorentina

PAOK

Ludogorets

Olimpija Ljubljana

Zorya Luhansk

Astana

Beşiktaş

Legia Warszawa

Genk

HJK Helsinki

Spartak Trnava

Klaksvík

Breidablik

Ballkani

Lugano

Zrinjski

Čukarički

Aberdeen

Nordsjælland

Group D is probably the standout in terms of competition – Brugge, Besiktas and Bodo/Glimt will all fancy their chances of progression in the tournament. You could possibly say the same about Groups C and F, too.

In all, though, these feel relatively straightforward. The standout Pot 2 teams of Villa and Fiorentina were each paired with Pot 1 teams that they’ll feel very capable of beating, and both are arguably the favourites in their respective groups.

Compared to the Champions League and Europa League, these groups are quite traditional in that they have clear favourites. It’ll take a series of shocks to upset the expectations for each group and you would think most of the ‘bigger’ clubs will be worried about avoiding the play-off round, rather than missing the knockout stages altogether.

Who are the tournament favourites?

It’s hard to judge a favourite at this stage because we don’t know who will drop down from the Europa League, and naturally those sides will come into the tournament expecting to win it.

Fiorentina have replaced Juventus in the competition after the Turin-based side was excluded by UEFA for violating regulatory framework and breaching a settlement agreement.

As a result of La Viola’s inclusion, they will likely be considered one of the favourites after they finished as the competition’s runners-up last term.

Villa, who are led by the European mastermind Emery, will also be expected to proceed to the later stages. In fact, they may just be our picks to win the whole thing after their dominant displays against Hibernian to qualify.

The Spaniard has won the Europa League on four occasions and will be eager to add another European accolade to his illustrious trophy cabinet.

Where is the 2024 Conference League final?

UEFA has recently announced that AEK Athens’ Agia Sofia Stadium will host the 2024 Europa Conference League final. The stadium only hosted its first match back in October and recently hosted Greece’s Euro 2024 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland, with the country’s remaining group games also being held there.

Athens previously hosted the 2007 Champions League final, with AC Milan beating Liverpool at the Olympic Stadium.

The date for Villans fans’ diaries is 29th May 2024, when they will hope to remain in the competition until the very end.

What happens if you win the Conference League?

Well, you get a trophy, of course. You also qualify for next season’s Europa League, provided you haven’t already qualified for the tournament (or the Champions League) through your league position.

Roma used their win in 2022 to push on towards the Europa League final in 2023, with West Ham looking to repeat the trick next time around – it provides a wonderful opportunity to progress on the European stage.

What is Unai Emery's European record?

Truly phenomenal. In fact, Villa fans have reason to feel very confident heading into the Conference League as Emery works absolute magic in these competitions.

He’s won the Europa League four times with two different clubs, while he also reached the final with Arsenal in 2019. But even that is underselling it.

Emery lifted the trophy three times in a row with Sevilla. His win with Villarreal marked their first major trophy – either domestic or continental. The man has a knack for lifting teams to unseen heights in Europe, and he’ll want to do the same with Villa.

We certainly wouldn’t back anyone betting against him. Villa can be a force in this competition – they’ve got the players, they’ve got the history themselves, and they’ve got a manager who knows how to win European trophies as well as anyone.