A poisoned chalice best avoided by Newcastle United?
The UEFA Conference League is back on the agenda.
Recent developments, the matches at the weekend, have opened up the possibility.
On Saturday it was confirmed that at least eight Premier League clubs will now play in European competition next season.
Manchester City’s win in the FA Cup final means that their place in the Europa League as FA Cup winners now passes to seventh place in the Premier League, while eighth will now secure a UEFA Conference League spot.
We then had the Premier League results as well in recent days.
They leave the Premier League table looking like this now on Tuesday (19 May 2026) afternoon:
The battle for top eight and playing in Europe is now on.
Newcastle United can still finish eighth and get UEFA Conference League football.
For that to come about we need these results to happen.
Tonight, Chelsea to not win at home against Tottenham.
Then on Sunday…
Newcastle to win at Fulham.
Sunderland v Chelsea to end in a draw.
Brentford to lose at Liverpool (and NUFC turn around the goal difference/goals scored, for example a 2-0 win for Newcastle and 1-0 defeat for Brentford would do that)
The question is though, would UEFA Conference League actually be good for Newcastle United anyway?
I don’t suddenly think that UEFA Conference League is beneath ourselves as fans and our club after two Champions League campaigns in three years, definitely not my thinking.
Instead it is a risk and reward situation for me. Weighing up the potential rewards of participation in the UEFA Conference League against the potential risks.
If Newcastle United did end up in the 2026/27 UEFA Conference League then it would mean European football, trips abroad for thousands of supporters, it would mean a chance to further improve the club’s UEFA co-efficient, it would mean NUFC generating some extra revenue.
More than anything, a realistic opportunity to win a second trophy in three seasons.
This is the fifth year of the UEFA Conference League and this is how English clubs have got on:
2021/22 Leicester knocked out in the semi-finals by eventual winners AS Roma.
2022/23 West Ham win it.
2023/24 Aston Villa lose in semi-finals to eventual winners Olympiakos.
2024/25 Chelsea win it.
2025/26 Crystal Palace to play in the final next Wednesday (27 May) against Rayo Vallecano)
However…?
What many fans saw as a disappointing 2023/24 Premier League season ended with Newcastle United in seventh place. That seventh place seeing Eddie Howe’s side ‘qualify’ for the Europa Conference League to play in the 2024/25 season.
However, when Manchester United shocked Manchester City in the FA Cup final, NUFC no longer had qualified status for the UEFA Conference League. Instead, Man U got a place in the Europa League through their cup win, Chelsea were knocked down to Conference level, whilst Newcastle United left with nothing in European terms.
Many Newcastle United fans were gutted that we had lost a European football place. I wasn’t.
Twelve months later the 2024/25 season ended with Newcastle United holding their first trophy in 56 years and having qualified for the Champions League due to a top five finish.
Imagine…Man City win the 2024 FA Cup final as had been expected and Newcastle United keep their UEFA Conference League place for 2024/25 due to their seventh place finish in 2023/24.
Do you honestly think that Newcastle United would still have gone on to win the 2025 League Cup final and qualify for the Champions League? Absolutely no chance, in my opinion.
The extra European matches would have been crippling.
This season Crystal Palace will play 17 UEFA Conference League matches in total.
Imagine if Eddie Howe and his players had had to cope with those extra matches last season with such a relatively small squad?
More to the point, imagine if Eddie Howe and his players have to deal with up to 17 extra UEFA Conference League matches next (2026/27) season???
To have the best possible chance of bouncing back next season in the Premier League, Newcastle United need a match schedule more like Man U’s has been this season than Palace’s.
Man U will only play 40 matches in total this 2025/26 season in all competitions and they are going to end the season third top in the Premier League and have already qualified for the Champions League.
Crystal Palace will play 59 matches this season in total (one more than Newcastle…). That is despite losing to Macclesfield in the third round of the FA Cup and winning only two League Cup matches. If you include the Community Shield they played on 10 August 2025 before the Premier League season started, Palace with actually 60 matches this season (two more than Newcastle…).
With no European football distractions next season, I think Newcastle United can definitely stand a great chance of bouncing back and compete for a Champions League place AND compete in the domestic cups.
If they have the UEFA Conference League to also contend with, I think that possibility becomes far far more difficult, basically impossible.
For starters, Newcastle United are set to kick off their 2026/27 Premier League campaign on the weekend of Saturday 22 August 2026.
If we make it into the competition, NUFC would have a qualifying round of the UEFA Conference League to play on Thursday 20 August and Thursday 27 August. With so many of the ties meaning travel to a far-off Eastern European destination, imagine having one of those on the Thursday a few days before Newcastle’s opening Premier League match???
If you still aren’t convinced, have a look at that current Premier League table above.
As you can see, in 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th you have the likes of Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford and Sunderland. None of that quartet having had European matches this season.
Look further down and despite their ridiculous spending you find Chelsea in 10th. then Newcastle United in 11th, Palace 15th, Forest 16th, Spurs 17th. All five having played so many matches in Europe this season.
Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool with their huge financial (and other) advantages are currently in the top five but Villa are at the moment the exception that proves the rule. Themselves and Newcastle United the two clubs in recent seasons who are facing such a battle to try and qualify for the Champions League, then trying to compete in it the following season AND in the Premier League.
With the Champions League, it is a no-brainer wanting to qualify for that. The prestige, the chance of glory, the excitement for the fans, the huge amounts of extra cash.
The Europa League is a competition that is also well worth qualifying for, even if it raises extra challenges for the next season’s Premier League campaign. Decent levels of prestige, chance of glory even if not at Champions League level and same story with excitement for fans, very decent amounts of extra cash.
The UEFA Conference League though, the balance is tipped, the negatives seriously outweigh the positives for me, the risks are far greater than the potential rewards.
So hopefully this will be a poisoned chalice avoided, ninth will do for me!!