Uefa Conference League play-off round draw LIVE: Shamrock Rovers discover fate

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The knockout phase play-offs are played over the course of two weeks:

First legs: 13 February 2025 Second legs: 20 February 2025

No, sides can face another team from the same national association in the knockout phase play-offs and clubs can also face opponents they met during the league phase.

Once all the pairings of unseeded teams have been drawn and assigned to an appropriate position on the bracket, the draw continues with the seeded teams, starting with the pairing ranked 15/16.

The process is the same as previously described for the unseeded teams, with the first team drawn from the relevant bowl allocated to the reserved designated spot on one side of the bracket and the second team on the other side.

The procedure is repeated for the remaining pairings, finishing with the teams ranked 9/10 to complete the pairings for the knockout phase play-offs.

The draw is carried out using a seeding bracket with each pair of teams allocated two predefined potential positions according to their league phase rankings.

Eight bowls are prepared for the draw, with the balls containing the names of the seeded and unseeded teams placed in the corresponding marked bowls according to the league phase rankings.

The draw starts with the unseeded teams, allocating each team from a pair of unseeded teams to one of the relevant pre-determined positions in the bracket, starting with the sides ranked 23/24 and finishing with those in 17/18.

The draw takes place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland and can be streamed live on Uefa.com. The Independent will have live coverage in this live blog.

Here are the unseeded teams for the draw placed in order of how they finished in the league table from 17th to 24th:

Vikingur Reykjavík (ISL)

Here are the seeded teams for the draw placed in order of how they finished in the league table from 9th to 16th:

Jagiellonia Białystok (POL)

NK Olimpija Ljubljana (SVN)

Real Betis Balompié (ESP)

1. FC Heidenheim 1846 (GER)

The teams that finished between ninth and 24th in the inaugural league phase will compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition.

They are split into two groups: Seeded and Unseeded.

The top eight finishers from the Uefa Conference League league phase have automatically qualified for the round of 16. These teams include the likes of Chelsea and Fiorentina.

To determine which eight teams join them there will be a play-off round for the teams that finished 9th-24th in the table. The play-off will be a two-legged tie and the winner enters the bracket for the round of 16 and onwards.

Potential opponents are also pre-defined by pairings of teams’ final league positions. For example, teams finishing ninth and tenth will face the sides that ended 23rd or 24th; teams finishing 11th or 12th will be drawn against either the 21st or 22nd-placed sides and so on.

Welcome to The Independent’s coverage of today’s Uefa Conference League play-off round draw.

16 teams will discover who they face in the first knockout round of the competition as they look to progress through to the last-16 ties which will take place in March.

Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea are already through to the next stage of the competition so won’t be in the draw but Ireland’s Shamrock Rovers, who were beaten by Chelsea last night, will be.

We’ll break down who’s in the draw and how it works before the action takes place at 12pm.