Do Crystal Palace qualify for the UEFA Super Cup as Conference League winners?
With a 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig, Crystal Palace secured the Premier League club’s first ever major European trophy.
Crystal Palace have lifted their first ever European silverware, after beating Rayo Vallecano in the UEFA Conference League final in Leipzig.
A second-half goal by Jean-Philippe Mateta secured a 1-0 win for Palace at Red Bull Arena on Wednesday night, in a clash between two teams who were both contesting their first continental final.
What do Palace get for winning the Conference League?
Victory over Rayo earns the Eagles the Conference League’s distinctive, silver-plated trophy, as well as a multi-million-dollar prize check, and qualification for Europe next season.
What the Premier League club doesn’t receive, though, is a ticket to the UEFA Super Cup this summer.
UEL spot for Conference League winners
Palace’s Conference League triumph is the team’s second major silverware success overall - and both trophies have been won under the stewardship of Oliver Glasner, the team’s outgoing head coach.
Wednesday’s win in Germany comes just over a year after Glasner’s men lifted the first elite trophy in the club’s more than century-long history: On May 17, 2025, Palace ended their long wait for silverware when they won the FA Cup - England’s major domestic cup competition - thanks to a 1-0 final victory over Manchester City.
That Wembley win should have clinched Palace a place in this season’s Europa League, but the Londoners were demoted to UEFA’s third-tier club competition after falling foul of multi-club ownership rules.
Now, assuming there is no repeat of this season’s administrative issues, Palace are set to get their shot at the Europa League: the winners of the Conference League are awarded qualification for the league phase of the continent’s second-flight club tournament.
With Palace returning to European play in 2026/27, the Premier League will now have a joint-record nine clubs in continental competition next season: five in the Champions League; three in the Europa League; and one in the Conference League.
That winning feeling 🤩 pic.twitter.com/VKU7BQ3kO8
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) May 27, 2026
How much prize money do Palace win?
In addition to a Europa League berth, Palace’s Conference League final win earns the club a prize payment of €7 million ($8.1 million). That’s on top of several smaller performance-related bonuses that the team has accumulated as it has negotiated the rounds leading up to the final.
Per a breakdown published by UEFA, Conference League clubs have received the following results-based prize payments in 2025/26:
- €400,000 for every league-phase win
- €133,000 for ever league-phase draw
- €400,000 for a top-eight league-phase finish
- €200,000 for a ninth-to-16th-place league-phase finish
- €200,000 for reaching the knockout-phase playoffs
- €800,000 for reaching the round of 16
- €1.3 million for reaching the quarterfinals
- €2.5 million for reaching the semifinals
- €4 million for reaching the final
- €3 million for winning the final
No Super Cup for super Eagles
However, Palace won’t be involved in this year’s edition of the UEFA Super Cup - an event that is the traditional curtain-raiser to the European club season.
Only the winners of the continent’s top two club competitions - the Champions League and the Europa League - qualify for the summer showpiece. That has been the case since 2000. Before then, the Super Cup was contested by the holders of the Champions League (originally known as the European Cup) and the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup.
So who’s playing the 2026 Super Cup?
Held at Red Bull Arena in at Salzburg, Austria, the 2026 Super Cup will pit Aston Villa, who won this season’s Europa League by beating Freiburg in last week’s final, against either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain. The Gunners face the Parisians in the 2026 Champions League final on Saturday, May 30, at Budapest’s Puskás Arena.
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