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Newcastle United are hoping to secure qualification for next season's UEFA Conference League.

Newcastle United's European fate is still yet to be decided following the conclusion of the 2023-24 Premier League season.

The Magpies finished seventh in the English top flight which has been enough to secure European football in eight of the last nine seasons. But as things stand, England's final European qualification place is still to be decided.

The FA Cup final between Manchester City and Manchester United on Saturday will determine the final European spot.

Who will get the final European qualification place? Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa have qualified for the Champions League next season while Tottenham Hotspur have qualified for the Europa League.

As Liverpool won the Carabao Cup in February and have since qualified for the Champions League, the Conference League place for winning the competition is passed down to the next highest-ranked team.

As things stand that is Chelsea, but it could still change as the FA Cup winners are granted a Europa League place.

Should league winners Manchester City also win the FA Cup, the Europa League spot for winning the competition will be passed down to sixth and the Conference League spot will go to seventh.

So Chelsea would qualify for the Europa League and Newcastle would qualify for the Conference League.

But if Manchester United, who finished outside of the European places, win the FA Cup, they will qualify for the Europa League. As a result of that, Chelsea will qualify for the Conference League and Newcastle won't qualify for any European competition.

Conference League play-offsEither Newcastle or Chelsea will represent England in the Conference League next season. While Premier League teams now go straight into the group stages of the Champions League and Europa League, they are required to play a play-off match in the Conference League.

The play-off round matches will be drawn on August 5 and take place on August 22 for the first leg and August 29 for the second leg. The winners of each play-off match will enter into the group stage of the competition.

The Premier League side that qualifies for the Conference League will enter into the play-offs via the 'main path' which prevents them from playing league champions from other UEFA countries.

Chelsea would likely have the highest UEFA coefficient of any side in the competition while Newcastle's coefficient score of around 20.860 would still see them named as a 'seeded' side in the play-off round draw.

Seeded sides are drawn against unseeded sides that have lower coefficients.

How the Conference League works next seasonMuch like the Champions League and Europa League, the Conference League has undergone a format change for the 2024-25 season.

A single group table consisting of 36 teams will see sides play six matches against teams seeded from 'pot one' to 'pot six'. Chelsea would be placed in pot one while Newcastle would likely be placed in pot two.

Unlike previous seasons, clubs will play against six different sides as opposed to three different sides home and away.

Teams that finish in the top eight places in the 36-team table will advance to the last-16 while those ranked ninth to 24th will enter an additional two-legged play-off round.

Losing sides from the Europa League group stage will not enter the competition as third-placed teams have in previous seasons. The same goes for Champions League sides in the Europa League.

What do clubs get for winning the Conference League?The Conference League prize money is significantly smaller than that of the more prestigious Europa League and especially the Champions League.

Group stage qualification has previously earned clubs around PS2.5million. West Ham United's run to winning the Conference League in 2022-23 earned the club around PS13million in total

In contrast, Newcastle earned PS18.37million in prize money alone for finishing bottom of their Champions League group in 2023-24. The winners of the Conference League are also granted automatic qualification to the Europa League group stage for the following season provided they hadn't already qualified for the Champions League or Europa League based on their domestic performance.

How have English teams fared in the Conference League? English teams have always been listed among the favourites to win the competition when the initial draws have been made. The same would go for Chelsea or Newcastle regardless of which team enters.

But as Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Aston Villa have found out, being amongst the favourites does not guarantee success in the competition.

Spurs came third in their group during the competition's inaugural season while Leicester City reached the semi-finals having exited the Europa League group stage.

West Ham stormed to win the competition in 2022-23, winning 12 and drawing one of their 13 matches as they beat Fiorentina in the final.

Aston Villa were tipped to win the Conference League amid an impressive season domestically but they were eventually undone by Greek side Olympiacos in the semi-final, losing 6-2 on aggregate.

Conference League key dates 2024-25After the play-off round is complete, the Conference League group stage fixtures will be drawn on August 30.

Group stage

Matchday 1: October 3, 2024

Matchday 2: October 24, 2024

Matchday 3: November 7, 2024

Matchday 4: November 28, 2024

Matchday 5: December 12, 2024

Matchday 6: December 19, 2024

Knockout round play-offs

Draw date: December 20, 2024

First leg: February 13, 2025

Second leg: February 20, 2025

The knockout rounds will be drawn in full on February 21, 2025

First leg: March 6, 2025

Second leg: March 13, 2025

First leg: April 10, 2025

Second leg: April 17, 2025

First leg: May 1, 2025

Second leg: May 8, 2025

Wednesday, May 28, 2025 at Stadion Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland.

All other matches will take place on Thursday evenings.