UEFA had reportedly considered adding a third-tier competition since at least 2015, believing that a bottom-level tournament could act as a means of giving clubs from lower-ranked UEFA member countries a chance of progressing beyond their customary elimination from the Champions League and Europa League.

[4] In mid-2018, talk of an announcement intensified, with news sources claiming an agreement had already been reached for the competition to be launched and that the 48-team Europa League group stage would be split in two, with the lower half forming the nucleus of what would be the new event.

[3] The original official name of the competition, "UEFA Europa Conference League", was announced on 24 September 2019.

The Europa Conference League Trophy stands 57.5 cm (22.6 in) tall and weighs 11 kg (24 lb).

[9] On 30 September 2021, the competition's first hat-trick was scored by Harry Kane for Tottenham Hotspur in a group stage match against NS Mura.

In the 2024 final, Olympiacos beat Fiorentina 1–0, becoming the first Greek club to win a major European competition.

[15] The Conference League trophy, designed by Pentagram, is made from brass, with galvanic steel and silver plating.

It features 32 hexagonal columns, to represent the 32 teams in the original group stage, curving upwards in a manner intended to resemble a football curling through the air towards the goal.

[note 2][17] The association ranking based on the UEFA country coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams in main path qualification for each association:[note 3][17] Based on this reorganisation, no association benefits from more berths to continental football than they had before the 2021–24 competition cycle, with the tournament essentially being the lower orders of the previous Europa League tournament split off into a secondary tournament.

Similar to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, the prize money received by the clubs is divided into fixed payments based on participation and results, and variable amounts that depend on the value of their TV market.