Košice Instead of Dunajská Streda – A Strange Swap of Urartu's Conference League Opponent

Football club Košice has officially announced on its social media pages that it will participate in the 2025/26 UEFA Europa Conference League instead of Dunajská Streda, which, according to Slovak media, was excluded from the competition for breaching UEFA's multi-club ownership rules. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that one person had decisive influence over both ETO FC and DAC, which is strictly prohibited.

Košice, who finished 5th in the Slovak league, was selected by a majority vote among Niké Liga clubs as a replacement and now has a chance to return to European competition for the first time in over a decade. Košice last played in European cups in the 2014/15 season as MFK Košice.

If the information is confirmed and Košice indeed replaces Dunajská Streda, its potential opponent in the second qualifying round will be the winner of Urartu (Armenia) vs Neman (Belarus). In the first leg in Yerevan, Neman won 2–1. The second leg will take place on July 17 in Győr, Hungary.

However, many questions remain. UEFA has not yet issued any official confirmation, and replacing a team after the draw is an extremely rare and questionable move. It's even more puzzling because Dunajská Streda was seeded, while Košice has no UEFA club coefficient and could not have been in the same bracket with Urartu or Neman. How such a replacement could happen without altering the matchups is unclear.

Still, for Urartu, this might be good news. Advancing past the second round of the Conference League is a realistic goal, and every European match is a chance to grow, gain experience, earn coefficient points, and generate revenue. Skipping a round via automatic progression is not always a blessing — especially if the next opponent is much stronger.

Now it remains to await UEFA’s official statement. So far, the only source of information is the Košice club itself.