The Stoiximan Super League is coming to an end and the Hellenic Novibet Cup is about to find a venue. The season is coming to an end and UEFA is waiting for the names of the five European ticket holders from our country in a few days.

AEK and Panathinaikos meet in Champions League qualifiers, Aris in Europa Conference League qualifiers and Olympiacos and PAOK respectively in Europa League qualifiers, with the latter trailing the Yellows in the third inter-club competition.

The Toumba derby will not necessarily decide the last two tickets as long as the Hellenic Novibet Cup is still open and PAOK can change the situation at the last minute.

Champions League dates

What doesn’t change is the path that will await the champions and runners-up of Greece. The first, most likely AEK, will be placed in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League and on the way to becoming champions. That means he needs two qualifiers to reach the “golden” groups.

If you qualify and are eliminated in the playoffs, it continues in the Europa League groups. Should he be eliminated in the 3rd qualifier, he will compete in the Europa League playoffs. If it qualifies from there, it remains in the groups of that competition, while in the event of elimination it is “relegated” to the groups of the Europa Conference League.

The runners-up Greece, likely Panathinaikos, starts their European journey from the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League on the path of non-champions. Unlike the Greek champions, they have no guaranteed participation in the Europa Conference League, but require at least one qualification.

If he succeeds, the same dates apply as for the Greek master, but on the respective paths of the non-masters. If it doesn’t advance to the Champions League qualifiers, it progresses to the Europa League 3rd qualifying round and from there on to the Europa League or Europa Conference League playoffs.

The champions play the first game of the 3rd qualifying round on August 8th and 9th and the second on the 15th of the month (draw on July 24th). The Greek runners-up will first compete on July 25th and 26th, then on August 1st and 2nd (draw on June 21st). If he qualifies, his dates will be the same as the Greek champions. If they don’t reach the playoffs (draw on August 7th), then they will fight on August 22-23. August for the first time and on 29-30 of the month for the second time for the “ticket” of the groups.

What is the case with PAOK and Olympiakos for the Europa League?

Greece’s 15th place in the UEFA rankings in the 2021-2022 season gives Greece five European tickets for the 2023-2024 season: two of them in Champions League qualifiers, two of them in Europa Conference League qualifiers and one of which in qualifying in the qualifying round of the Europa League.

The final ticket is for the Greek Cup winners, however if not required it will be awarded to the 3rd team in the playoffs. According to the current data, if AEK wins the cup then the ticket will not be necessary as they will compete in Champions League qualifiers, so 3rd place in the playoffs will be even more important.

On the contrary, if PAOK wins the cup, they will automatically get the ticket to qualify for the Europa League, regardless of the league placement, and Olympiakos will compete in the Europa Conference League together with Aris.

The rounds in which the Greek teams will compete

As Sportish announced on April 25, the Greek team that will take part in the competition will most likely not start their journey in the qualifying round.

The realignment, which will result from the victories of the three European competitions this year and some placings in the national championships, should lead to redistributions.

The favorite in the playoffs of the next Europa League will initially be the representative of the Netherlands, who will “move up” in the groups. The representative of Greece will be asked to fill this gap in the playoffs, thereby automatically securing participation in the Europa Conference League groups (if eliminated in the Europa League playoffs).

However, if the representative of Greece starts in the 3rd qualifying round and is eliminated there, he will compete in the Europa Conference League play-offs and then secure a place in the group stage.

The Greek Cup ticket holder (regardless of whether they are eventual cup winners or not) will start their European duties on Thursday 10 August. The second leg will take place on Thursday 17th August (draw on 24th July) when he is in the third qualifier.

Should he finally find himself in the playoffs, he will make his debut on Thursday, August 24 and secure a spot in the institution’s groupings on Thursday, August 31 (the draw will take place on August 7).

The chance of the Europa Conference League

The Europa Conference League is the event where sooner or later all the representatives of Greece unexpectedly meet.

Aris will start from the institution’s 2nd qualifier and will be either PAOK or Olympiacos with him. The remaining teams can be “relegated” to the said tournament after being eliminated from the higher competitions in later stages.

In this particular case, there is no exclusion “cushion”. Greek teams need to complete three qualifiers to advance to the group stage and if they are eliminated the European course will end in disgrace.

The representatives of Greece in the Europa Conference League will start their participation in the competition on Thursday, July 27 and will play the second game of the second qualifying round on August 3 (draw on June 21). They then follow the Europa League qualifiers calendar, meaning they compete in the 3rd qualifier on August 10th and 17th and in the playoffs on the 24th and 31st of the month.