How does European qualifying work for clubs from UK?
Jonty Colman
BBC Sport journalist
Rangers, Hibernian and Dundee United are among 10 teams from the UK who will discover their first opponents in the qualification rounds of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League this week.
The draws for the first round of qualifying for all three competitions take place on Tuesday, 17 June with the second round qualifying draws a day later.
All three competitions have four rounds of qualifying prior to a league phase.
The three Scottish teams enter at the second qualifying round of their respective competition – Rangers in the Champions League, Hibs in the Europa League and Dundee United in the Conference League.
Northern Irish champions Linfield and Welsh title winners The New Saints both enter the first round of Champions League qualifying.
Dungannon Swifts, who won the Irish Cup, enter the second round of Conference League qualifying alongside Dundee United
The remaining four teams from the UK – Penybont and Haverfordwest County from Wales, and Larne and Cliftonville from Northern Ireland – all feature in the Conference League’s first qualifying round.
The first and second rounds of qualifying for all three competitions take place across July.
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How does the Champions League draw work?
Rangers will have to get through three rounds of qualifying to reach the Champions League for the first time since the 2022-23 season
The 28 teams in the Champions League’s first qualifying round have been split into two pots – seeded and unseeded.
The New Saints and Linfield are both seeded, meaning that – on paper – they have a more advantageous draw.
Teams they could potentially face include Dinamo Minsk of Belarus, Shelbourne from the Republic of Ireland and Armenian side Noah, who met Chelsea in the group stages of the 2024-25 Conference League.
Should either side advance to the second qualifying round, they will enter the champions path – for clubs who qualified as national champions.
Both teams would enter as unseeded teams, where potential opponents include Danish champions Copenhagen or Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava.
Rangers enter at this point, but are in a separate section known as the league path.
The Glasgow side are one of three seeded teams in that path and will face either Panathinaikos (Greece), Servette (Switzerland) or Brann (Norway) in the second round.
Scottish champions Celtic enter at the play-off qualifying round and will face one of eight sides for a place in the Champions League, with Basel (Switzerland) and Sturm Graz (Austria) among their potential opponents.
How does Europa League qualifying work?
Hibernian finished third in the Scottish Premiership during the 2024-25 season
Hibernian are the only British side entering either of the first two Europa League qualifying rounds.
As one of eight unseeded sides in the second qualifying round, their potential opponents include Braga of Portugal, Belgian outfit Anderlecht or Midtjylland from Denmark.
PAOK (Greece) and Young Boys (Switzerland) will enter later in the competition, as well as 16 losing sides from earlier qualifying rounds in the Champions League.
Aberdeen will enter the final round of Europa League qualifying and will be an unseeded team in the draw.
How does Conference League qualifying work?
Larne played in the league phase of the Conference League during the 2024-25 season
Of the 10 UK teams featured in the first two qualification rounds for Europe’s three club competitions, six are going into the Conference League.
Northern Irish duo Larne and Cliftonville and Welsh sides Penybont and Haverfordwest County all enter the first round.
Larne enter as a seeded team, with the other three sides all unseeded.
Dundee United and Dungannon Swifts enter the second round of qualifying, with the former seeded and the latter unseeded.
Larne are guaranteed to be a seeded side in the second qualifying round, should they get that far.
Nottingham Forest will enter the final round of Conference League qualifying and are guaranteed to be a seeded side in that draw, meaning they will avoid a meeting with Fiorentina (Italy), Rayo Vallecano (Spain), Mainz (Germany) and Strasbourg (France), among others.
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