Trabzonspor were 5-0 down on aggregate to Ferencváros a night ago and out of the Europa League. That is not the end of their European season, it is a change of competition: they drop into the Conference League league phase, and the draw has now given them six opponents — SC Freiburg, Crvena Zvezda, Heart of Midlothian, KuPS, Jablonec and CSKA Sofia.
The six
One opponent from each of the six pots. H = home, A = away. Freiburg, Hearts and Jablonec come to Trabzon; the other three are away.
Three of them beat someone to get here
Freiburg beat Motherwell 7-2, KuPS beat Shamrock Rovers 2-1, and Jablonec knocked Rangers out on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate. Heart of Midlothian needed penalties of their own against Rapid Wien. The other two arrived the same way Trabzonspor did: Crvena Zvezda lost a Europa League play-off to Viktoria Plzeň — 3-0 up from the first leg, beaten 5-1 in the return — and CSKA Sofia lost 5-0 to OFI. Four of the six were playing knockout football a week ago, and three of them won it.
What the drop actually costs
For the club it costs prize money and prestige. For Türkiye’s coefficient it costs much less than it looks, because the country coefficient counts points from all three competitions and divides by the number of clubs entered — a Conference League run still adds to the same total that Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe are building in the Champions League. Türkiye came out of the qualifying rounds with three clubs still playing. Six more matches for Trabzonspor is six more chances to add to that column, in the competition where a Turkish side is most likely to go deep.
Opponent list as drawn on 28 August 2026. Each of the six comes from a different pot, which is what the six-match Conference League format requires, and the Freiburg tie is confirmed at Trabzonspor by UEFA’s published draw table. Three of the six are at Trabzonspor — Freiburg, Hearts and Jablonec — and three are away. Play-off results verified against UEFA match reports.