Welcome to the Europa Conference League - the barrel-scraping competition that could await Liverpool or Arsenal

There’s a new European football competition in town, as Uefa launches the Europa Conference League next season.

Telegraph Sport breaks down how the tournament will be structured and which English team will be playing in its first iteration:

What is the Europa Conference League?

Initially dubbed the ‘Europa League 2’ (UEL2), the Europa Conference League is a new Uefa competition which is considered to be the third tier of European club football, below the Champions League and Europa League.

The competition will initially run for three seasons from 2021-2024 as Uefa assesses its viability. The first season will begin with qualifying rounds in July, before the competition proper starts in September.

The thinking behind the new competition is to allow more teams to gain experience of playing European football.

Uefa President Aleksander Čeferin said: "The new Uefa club competition makes Uefa's club competitions more inclusive than ever before. There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages."

How will the competition work?

After three initial qualifying rounds over the summer, which will involve up to 184 teams, the competition proper will follow a similar structure to the current iteration of the Champions League.

Thirty two teams will qualify for the group stage, with those teams being divided into eight groups of four. There will then follow a traditional knockout format from the last-16 down to a final, with knockout matches played over two legs. As with other Uefa competitions, the away goal rule will apply.

In order to qualify for the knockout stages automatically, a team must win their group. The second place team in each group will enter a qualifying round for the knockout stage, where they will play against the third placed teams from the Europa League groups. The winners of those matches will enter the last-16 of the Europa Conference League.

In all, 141 matches will be played over the course of 15 weeks during the tournament proper. The winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the next season's Europa League.

How many English teams will qualify?

Just one English team will qualify for the Europa Conference League. This spot will either go to the winners of the Carabao Cup or, if it has already qualified to Champions League or Europa League, to the sixth or seven placed in the Premier League.

Which English team will qualify this year?

With Manchester City winning the Carabao Cup and automatically qualifying for next season’s Champions League, the spot for the inaugural Europa Conference League will go to the team finishing highest in the Premier League, not already qualifying for a Uefa competition (ie Champions League and Europa League). And with FA Cup finalists Chelsea and Leicester City also both currently occupying a top-four place, that means the Premier League's seventh-placed team will qualifying for the Europa Conference League.

Given the current state of the Premier League table, one of West Ham, Liverpool, Tottenham, Everton and Arsenal are in contention. Two of them will make the Europa League and one will make the Europa Conference League.

Tottenham currently occupy seventh place with three matches left to play, though Everton are just a point behind with a game in hand (which is against Aston Villa). Arsenal also have a shot after victory against Chelsea, but are a point behind with a game in hand, and only two games left to play and a worse goal difference.

Which other teams will join the competition?

While the champions of every country will get the chance to qualify for the Champions League, all other teams from countries ranked below 15th in the Uefa Coefficients will enter the Europa Conference League rather than the Europa League.

Teams eliminated from the Champions League preliminary round and first qualifying rounds will also go to the Conference League, as well as those eliminated from the Europa League third qualifying round, play-off round and third place finishers in the group stage.

As a result of the new competition, the Europa League is also going through a revamp.

How does this tournament affect the Europa League?

The Europa League will now be trimmed down. Currently 48 teams play in the group stage, but this will now be reduced to 32. These teams will be divided into eight groups of four, with the knockout format doing away with the last-32 round, instead going straight to a last-16.

As with the Europa Conference League, the group winners will go straight into the last-16, while the group runners-up will play in a playoff round against the third placed teams from the Champions League groups. The winners of that round will advance to the Europa League last-16.

When will the matches be played and where will they be broadcast?

All matches will be played on Thursday, the same day as the Europa League. The group stage will run from September-December.

The playoffs for the last 16 will be two-legged affairs in February, before the knockout round runs from March-May. The inaugural final will be held on May 25 2022 in Tirana, Albania.

As with all other European competitions, BT Sport will hold exclusive broadcast rights to the matches in the UK.