Europa Conference League for Newcastle United? Bring it on! | OneFootball

We did what we had to do.

Seventh place secured for Newcastle United and a continuation of European adventures a possibility.

I don’t own a Man City shirt but our third shirt from the 21/22 season is close enough. I’ll be adorning that on Saturday.

For some, a season out of Europe feels like it could be a blessing. After the injury traumas of the past year, less games than our competitors at the top might give us an edge. That’s the theory anyway.

Realistically though, there are so many positives to being in a European competition. Current players want it, potential signings want it, there’ll be extra prize money, TV money and gate receipts. Plus, for us, there are a load more games to watch (and more opportunities for members to get to a game).

This was covered in a previous article a couple of days ago but, most importantly, the Europa Conference League represents our best chance of breaking our trophy hoodoo.

I’m 36 and have never seen us win anything of note.

If I live to double that age, there is every chance that I will have seen us win it all.

I want to see us win it all. And I do mean ALL.

We may never compete in this competition again. There is only one place up for grabs each season so the chances of playing in it are slim. If we win it, we’ve got that one bagged and then it’s a case of picking up (at least) one of everything else in the next 36 years for my appetite to be satisfied.

Three years ago, you’d have called me bonkers for saying I thought that we may win everything in our lifetime. Now, there’s a possibility it could happen. The powers that be will continue to try and slow us down but eventually we’ll get that first trophy, then the next and the next.

As long as our ownership don’t cash out any time in the next decade, we should be built into a position where we challenge for everything.

Now, I’m not taking anything for granted. Winning any trophy is difficult, but boy, would we have a chance in the Europa Conference League.

Looking at the 2023/24 season’s competition, the teams that topped their groups were the following:

You’d have fancied our chances of reaching the knockout stages when these sorts of teams are finishing top of their groups. Teams dropping out of the Europa League played the runners up from each group in a play-off. The winners of each play-off joined the above sides in the last 16.

That meant the above teams were joined by:

SK Sturm Graz Olympiacos Molde Ajax Union Saint-Gilloise Servette Dinamo Zagreb Maccabi Haifi

There aren’t too many teams in either list that would worry us too much. There are some decent sides, but I would fancy back us to get past any of them, especially over two legs.

Like the other European competitions, the Europa Conference League is getting a revamp next season.

It will be one massive, complicated, seeded group that the qualified teams compete in. Before that though, there are qualifiers galore. I won’t get into the convoluted qualifying process with four stages of two legged knockout matches and various teams joining at different stages. Teams failing in Champions League and Europa League qualifiers drop in at various points. I would hate to have been the person tasked with plotting out how it all works.

All that would matter to us is that we would come in at the fourth qualifying round, known simply as the play off round. To put in perspective how this could look for us, Villa played Hibernian this season. Hibernian finished 5th in the SPL. Villa beat them 8-0 over two legs. Barring any Partizan Belgrade style catastrophes, you’d have to fancy our chances of being in the group stage.

It would mean another two games thrust into August, the second of which would undoubtedly see Tonali’s return to first team football as it is played two days after his ban expires.

Then we’d have six games between the 3rd of October and 19th of December in the 36 team group stage. I’m not a fan of these changes to the group stages in each European competition. We’ll play six matches against six different opponents. Three home and three away with the top eight teams in the league qualifying for the knockout stage and the teams placed 9th to 24th contesting yet another play-off round to meet those top eight in the last sixteen.

There will be no new teams dropping from the Europa League though this time around. As soon as that league stage kicks off, we’ll know precisely who the 36 teams are that could go on to win the competition.

Yes, it could mean an extra 15 games next season.

But it could also mean… an extra 15 games next season. The last of which would see a Geordie invasion of Wroclaw with the dream of winning our first trophy in 56 years.