The Europa League trophy is safely in Tottenham Hotspur's possession, the Champions League crown will soon belong to either Paris Saint-Germain or Inter Milan, but the destiny of the Conference League now takes centre stage.
The continent's newest competition reaches its climax on Wednesday night in Wroclaw, where a Premier League powerhouse and an unfancied La Liga upstart will vie for the right to call themselves European champions, at least in the tertiary sense.
Here, Sports Mole takes a deeper dive into the history of the Conference League final and the key details surrounding this year's showpiece event.
Who will play in the 2025 Conference League final?
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The 2025 Conference League final will be contested by Chelsea and Real Betis, who are locking horns for the fifth time in competitive matches after the 1997-98 Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals and 2005-06 Champions League group phase.
Enzo Maresca's men sailed through the league phase as expected, placing first in the table to bypass the knockout round playoffs and sail straight into the last 16, where they saw off Copenhagen 3-1 over two legs.
The Blues then downed Legia Warsaw 4-2 on aggregate and Djurgardens IF 5-1 in the semi-finals to reach their 13th European showpiece, and having already won the Champions League, Europa League and Super Cup, they could become the first club in history to triumph in all four competitions.
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In stark contrast, Real Betis are making their first-ever appearance in a continental final this week, and they took the scenic route to Poland, only finishing 15th in the league phase to enter the knockout playoffs.
However, Manuel Pellegrini's men managed a 3-1 aggregate win over Gent, before pummelling Vitoria Guimaraes 6-2 over two legs in the last 16 and defeating Polish side Jagiellonia Białystok 3-1 in the quarters.
Los Verdiblancos faced an incredibly stiff semi-final test against perpetual also-rans Fiorentina, who took them to extra time in the second leg, but a 97th-minute Abde Ezzalzouli strike sent Betis through to the main event.
Who won the 2024 Conference League?
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Greek giants Olympiacos were the defending champions heading into this year's edition of the Conference League, having subjected Fiorentina to their second straight final defeat in the 2023-24 edition.
Thrylos had laid down a marker by thrashing Aston Villa 6-2 in the semis, although there was nothing doing between Olympiacos and Fiorentina in the first 90 minutes of their final in the former's native Athens.
However, with four minutes to go before a dreaded penalty shootout, the tournament's top scorer Ayoub El Kaabi headed in his 11th goal of the competition to propel Olympiacos to a historic 1-0 victory.
The Red-Whites became the first-ever Greek club to win a European trophy that night and qualified for the 2024-25 Europa League as a result, but they were beaten by Bodo/Glimt in the last 16 of the secondary tournament.
Who has won the Conference League most often?
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As the 2024-25 edition is only the fourth season of the Conference League, there is unsurprisingly yet to be a side that has won the title more than once, although there is already a team that has lost the most finals.
Prior to the 2023-24 final against Olympiacos, Fiorentina hearts were also broken in the 2022-23 showpiece match, where West Ham United's 2-1 victory represented the most famous night in the Irons' memory.
After Said Benrahma and Giacomo Bonaventura struck for their respective sides, Jarrod Bowen held his nerve in the 90th minute when one-on-one with Fiorentina goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano, as West Ham snapped a 43-year sequence without a major honour.
One year beforehand, the inaugural Conference League trophy went to Jose Mourinho's Roma, as a solitary Nicolo Zaniolo strike was enough for a 1-0 success over Arne Slot's Feyenoord.
What do you get if you win the Conference League?
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Just like the Europa League winners earning direct entry into the Champions League, the winners of the Conference League qualify for the league phase of Europe's secondary competition.
However, that is irrelevant in this case, as Chelsea made it into the Champions League thanks to a fourth-placed finish in the Premier League, while Betis wound up in sixth in La Liga and will compete in the Europa League regardless.
Victory also brings obvious financial benefits, as the winners of the Conference League pocket a total of €7m (£5.8m) in prize money alone; Chelsea have currently earned just under £16m in this season's tournament, while Betis have accrued £14.5m already.
List of all previous Conference League winners
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2024: Olympiacos
2023: West Ham United
2022: Roma
Ben Knapton
