The 2021/22 season will begin shortly as Maccabi face a new challenge. Having won the State Cup, Maccabi will appear in the European competition on its’ inaugural season – the Conference League. For the first time since the 1998/99 season European club football will be split into a three competition format as the Conference League will be played alongside the Champions League and the Europa League.
The format
Maccabi will begin its’ journey in the second qualifying round as in a similar way to the other European competitions, four qualifying rounds (including the Playoff) are required in order to reach the Group stages – which will be comprised of 32 teams.
Clubs appearing in the Conference League qualifying rounds enter the competition based on their performance in their domestic leagues. They will be joined by clubs knocked-out from the Europa League qualifying rounds.
The draw
The second qualifying round is set to take place on Wednesday June 16th, a day after the draw for the 1st qualifying round. Maccabi’s achievements in Europe in recent years will ensure a spot amongst the seeded clubs in every draw, including the Playoffs.
No less than 108 clubs will enter the draw for the 2nd qualifying round with potential opponents from all over the continent. Big name clubs that are not seeded at this stage of the competition hence could face Maccabi are Aris Thessaloniki (Greece), Ujpest (Hungary) as well as last season’s opponents Dynamo Brest (Belarus).
Senior opponents
The newly introduced competition would also include clubs from Europe’s major leagues, although none of them are guaranteed a spot in the group phase as they will all enter the competition in the Play-Off phase. Tottenham Hotspur (England), AS Roma (Italy), Rennes (France) and Union Berlin (Germany).
Other senior clubs entering the Conference League in the qualifying phases are Eli Dasa’s Vitesse Arnhem (Holland), Feyenoord (Holland), Anderlecht (Belgium), Rubin Kazan (Russia) and Trabzonspor (Turkey). Familiar clubs who played against Maccabi in the past will also try and qualify: FC Basel (Switzerland), Viktoria Plzen (Czech Republic), Sivasspor (Turkey) and Astana (Kazakhstan).
