The 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League group stage began on 20 September 2023 and ended on 14 December 2023. A total of 32 teams competed in the group stage to decide 8 of the 16 places in the knockout phase of the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League.
All teams besides AZ, Ballkani, Bodø/Glimt, Fiorentina, Gent, HJK, Maccabi Tel Aviv, PAOK, Slovan Bratislava and Zorya Luhansk made their debut appearances in the group stage. Breiðablik, Čukarički, KÍ, Olimpija Ljubljana and Zrinjski Mostar made their debut appearances in a UEFA competition group stage. Breiðablik, KÍ and Zrinjski Mostar were the first teams from Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Bosnia and Herzegovina, respectively, to play in a UEFA competition group stage. Breiðablik also became the first ever team to qualify for the group stages of a UEFA club competition after starting in a preliminary round.
A total of 28 national associations were represented in the group stage.
This was the final season with the group stage format, which was replaced by the league phase format starting from the next season.[1]
The draw for the group stage was held on 1 September 2023, 14:30 CEST, in Monaco. The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. For the draw, the teams were seeded into four pots, each of eight teams, based on their 2023 UEFA club coefficients.[2] Teams from the same association could not be drawn into the same group. Prior to the draw, UEFA formed pairings of teams from the same association, including those playing in the Europa League group stage (one pairing for associations with two or three teams, two pairings for associations with four or five teams), based on television audiences, where one team was into Groups A–D and another team was drawn into Groups E–H, so that the two teams would have different kick-off times. The following pairings were announced by UEFA after the group stage teams were confirmed (the second team in a pairing marked by UEL played in the Europa League group stage):
AZ and Ajax (UEL)
Aberdeen and Rangers (UEL)
Bodø/Glimt and Molde (UEL)
Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion (UEL).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Belgium_(civil).svg.png){kind=small}
Club Brugge and Union Saint-Gilloise (UEL)
Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa (UEL)
Lille and Toulouse (UEL)
PAOK and AEK Athens (UEL)
Čukarički and TSC (UEL).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Switzerland_(Pantone).svg.png){kind=small}
Lugano and Servette (UEL)
Legia Warsaw and Raków Częstochowa (UEL) Gent and Genk
Fenerbahçe and Beşiktaş
Slovan Bratislava and Spartak TrnavaBelow were the participating teams (with their 2023 UEFA club coefficients),[2] grouped by their seeding pot. They included:
Notes
In each group, teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The winners of each group advanced to the round of 16, while the runners-up advanced to the knockout round play-offs. The third-placed and fourth-placed teams were eliminated from European competitions for the season.
Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (see Article 16 Equality of points – group stage, Regulations of the UEFA Europa Conference League):[3]
The fixtures were announced on 2 September 2023, the day after the draw. The matches were played on 20–21 September, 5 October, 26 October, 9 November, 30 November and 14 December 2023. The scheduled kick-off times were 18:45 and 21:00 CET/CEST, with possible exceptions at 16:30 CET/CEST due to geographical reasons.
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).