Sports

West Ham Drawn Bye As UEFA Conference League Draw Holds In Nyon

The draw for the play-off stage of the UEFA Conference League was made on Monday afternoon after the Champions League and Europa League draws were conducted.

Monday’s draw featured the eight teams to finish as runners-up in the Conference League group phase plus eight team to finish third in the Europa League group phase.

The draw for the next stage of the competition was made in Nyon, Switzerland.

England’s West Ham weren’t involved in the draw having won their group, so will await the winners of one of the ties decided in the next stage.

The draw was headlined by Braga vs Fiorentina, while Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio will take on CFR 1907 Cluj of Romania.

The competition was created two seasons ago as the third tier of European football competition after the Champions League and UEFA Europa League with the winners getting into the group stages of the UEFA Europa League.

The full draw was as follows. All ties are to take place over two legs on 16 and 23 February 2023:

Qarabag (Azerbaijan) vs Gent (Belgium)
Trabzonspor (Turkey) vs FC Basel (Switzerland)
Lazio (Italy) vs FC Cluj (Romania)
Bodo/Glimt (Norway) vs Lech Poznań (Poland)
Braga (Portugal) vs Fiorentina (Italy)
AEK Larnaca (Cyprus) vs Dnipro (Ukraine)
Sheriff (Moldova) vs FK Partizan (Serbia)
Ludogorets (Bulgaria) vs Anderlecht (Belgium)

The eight team who will face the winners of the eight ties above in the round of 16, which takes place on 9 and 16 March 2023 are:

AZ Alkmaar (Netherlands)
Djurgarden (Sweden)
Istanbul Basaksehir (Turkey)
Nice (France)
Sivasspor (Turkey)
Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia)
West Ham United (England)
Villareal (Spain)

The remaining rounds of the Conference League – the quarter finals, semi finals and the final, which is being staged at the Eden Arena in Prague, Czech Republic – take place on the following dates:

Quarter-finals: 13 and 20 April 2023
Semi-finals: 11 and 18 May 2023
Final: 7 June 2023

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.