How to watch Chelsea in the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League (original) (raw)
UEFA's newest men's club football competition is back for the 2024/25 season, with a shorter name (so long, UEFA Europa Conference League, we barely knew you).
There's also a big format change – like the Champions League and Europa League, UEFA has done away with groups and is instead placing 36 clubs from across Europe into a massive mega-league.
Chelsea of the Premier League are among those sides, just a few years after their 2020/21 Champions League win.
Mike Hewitt//Getty Images
Under new management with Enzo Maresca and with new signings including Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jadon Sancho, they'll be hoping for another European trophy to add to their collection – and currently top the Conference League table after the first two games.
Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian are also in a good position, sitting sixth on goal difference (but like Chelsea, they've won two from two so far).
Meanwhile, Cymru Premier champions The New Saints (TNS) become the first Welsh side to appear in the group stages of a UEFA men's club tournament. The club is playing its league phase matches at Shrewsbury Town's ground The New Meadow, and currently sits in 19th after a win and a loss.
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Larne FC, champions of the NIFL Premiership in Northern Ireland, will also make their first appearance in the league phase of the UEFA Conference League. Sadly, they're currently bottom of the 36-team league having lost their two opening matches.
Here's how you can tune in – as well as a quick explainer of the new format.
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Watch and stream 2024/25 UEFA Conference League football in the UK
TNT Sports is the exclusive home of not only the UEFA Conference League, but also the UEFA Europa League. It now shares UEFA Champions League rights with Amazon's Prime Video streaming service.
Watch UEFA Europa Conference League football with TNT
It also carries coverage of Premier League fixtures as part of a rights-sharing deal, and broadcasts action from Serie A in Italy.
TNT Sports' Conference League action continues on Thursday, November 7 with a teatime kick-off for The New Saints, who visit Shamrock Rovers. Coverage starts at 5pm on TNT Sports 4.
Chelsea host FC Noah of the Armenian Premier League later that evening, while Larne are at home to St Gallen of Switzerland and Hearts welcome Bundesliga side 1. FC Heidenheim. Coverage of all three of those matches starts at 7.45pm on TNT Sports 1 (for Chelsea), TNT Sports 3 (for Hearts) and TNT Sports 4 (for Larne).
The easiest way to sign up for TNT Sports is via its Discovery+ Premium monthly pass, priced at £30.99 for 30 days' access.
To watch, you can use the Discovery+ app or log in on your computer. There's also the option to cast to your TV via Apple Airplay or Google Chromecast, and you can use a range of compatible devices to stream TNT Sports programming.
Watch Conference League football with TNT Sports
Pros
- Premier League and Champions League football
- Live Eurosport with cycling, tennis, snooker, motorsports
- Included in the Discovery+ Premium membership
Cons
- It's expensive
- Not as extensive as Sky Sports
In addition to the football mentioned above, TNT Sports also broadcasts NBA basketball, WWE, UFC, MotoGP and Formula E racing. It carries rugby including the Investec Champions Cup and Gallagher Premiership Rugby, as well as cricket and boxing.
Discovery+ Premium subscribers also get access to everything from Eurosport on its Standard tier of programming, with sports including Australian Open and French Open tennis, plus WEC endurance car racing including the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans.
UEFA Conference League 2024/25 format changes explained
The UEFA Conference League's pre-league phase qualification system is wonderfully complex, but we'll do our best to offer a quick explanation.
There are two pathways. The 'Champions Path' is designated for teams who lost out on Champions League qualification – whether that's via elimination from the Europa League after losing out on a Champions League place, or direct elimination from the Champions League qualification system.
Larne and TNS both came into the competition through this route. Each side won their domestic league but had a slightly different route to the Conference League's league phase.
Larne were eliminated in the first round of the Champions League qualifiers and then entered the Conference League. TNS entered and were eliminated in the second qualifying round, before then being eliminated from the Europa League's third qualifying round on the way to the Conference League.
Ross Parker - SNS Group//Getty Images
The second route is the 'Main Path'. That's for everyone else who wasn't eligible for the chance to enter the main Champions League tournament. These include Chelsea, who finished sixth in the 2023/24 Premier League and got their place by finishing as runners-up in the EFL Cup final – winners Liverpool qualified for the Champions League instead.
The Main Path is also designated for clubs that were eliminated from the Europa League qualification rounds without having played a Champions League qualifier, such as the Norwegian side Molde FK and Panathinaikos of Greece.
Most of the 36 teams who have reached this point travelled down one of these pathways, getting through three two-leg qualification rounds and a two-leg play-off round. However, 12 clubs (including Hearts) entered the Conference League after failing to qualify for the Europa League.
UEFA Conference League 2024/25 league phase explained
Next up, all sides enter into a 36-team league and play six matches (three at home and three away). You can see the latest table here.
For the draw, the teams were split into six seeded pots with six teams each, based on their UEFA "club coefficient", which ranks teams based on their recent performance. Chelsea were ranked in Pot 1, Hearts and TNS in Pot 4, and Larne in Pot 6.
Each team plays one club from each pot, including their own pot – although they can't face opponents from their own domestic league and can't be drawn against more than two sides from any other association (so, for example, no club could play all three sides from Cyprus during the league phase).
Otherwise, fixtures were allocated at random by automated software, after each club was physically chosen from a pot.
Once all the league phase fixtures are over, the top eight sides are seeded in the Round of 16. Clubs ranked from ninth to 16th place enter into another two-leg play-off round as a seeded team, which means they host the second leg at home. Clubs ranked from 17th to 24th place will face them, and play the first leg at their home ground. Anyone finishing in 25th place or lower is eliminated.
The UEFA Conference League final has been booked for Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at the Wrocław Stadium in Poland.
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