2024–25 UEFA Nations League

The UEFA national teams will be divided into four leagues, with Leagues A, B and C featuring 16 teams each, divided into four groups of four teams. League D will feature 7 teams divided into two groups, with one containing four teams and the other containing three. The teams are allocated to leagues based on the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League overall ranking. Each team will play six matches within their group, except for one group in League D which will play four, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in the FIFA International Match Calendar.[1][2]

On 25 January 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee confirmed a modified format for the Nations League following the league phase.[3][4] In the top division, League A, the group winners and runners-up will advance to a new quarter-final round, played home-and-away over two legs in March 2025. The winners will qualify for the Nations League Finals, retaining its previous format, which is played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off and final. The semi-final pairings, along with the administrative home teams for the third place play-off and final, are determined by means of a draw. The host country will be selected among the four qualified teams by the UEFA Executive Committee, with the winners of the final crowned as the Nations League champions.

Teams also compete for promotion and relegation to a higher or lower league. The group winners in Leagues B, C, and D are promoted, while the last-placed teams of each group in Leagues A and B are relegated. As League C has four groups while League D has only two, the two worst-ranked League C teams will automatically be relegated (a change from the previous editions, which featured relegation play-outs between the fourth-placed teams of League C). As part of the format change, promotion/relegation play-offs will also be introduced, with the third-placed teams of League A facing the runners-up of League B, and the third-placed teams of League B facing the runners-up of League C. The matches will be played home-and-away over two legs in March 2025, with the winners going to the higher league and the losers entering the lower league.[5]

In all two-legged ties, the higher seeded team host the second leg. The team that scores more goals on aggregate is the winner. If the aggregate score is level, extra time is played (the away goals rule is not applied). If the score remains level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner.[6]

Below is the schedule of the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League.[5]

Map showing the leagues each national team will participate in.

  League A

  League B

  League C

  League D

  To be determined

All 55 UEFA national teams are able to submit an entry for the competition. The teams which finished bottom of their group in Leagues A and B, as well as the losers from the relegation play-outs of League C, from the 2022–23 season will move down a league, while the group winners of Leagues B, C and D will move up. The remaining teams will stay in their respective leagues.[9]

In an interview with Polish website meczyki.pl, UEFA vice-president Zbigniew Boniek said that all ten teams from CONMEBOL, South America's football federation, could join the UEFA Nations League from the 2024–25 edition of the competition.[10] The plans, which would act as a response to FIFA's biennial World Cup plans, were intended as part of enhanced cooperation between the two organisations following the signing of a memorandum of understanding and the opening of a joint office in London.[11] However, such an expansion was made unlikely after CONMEBOL submitted a request to FIFA to maintain the round-robin qualification format for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.[12] On 25 January 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee confirmed the format for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League, with no South American teams to be added.[3]

Teams below are ordered within their league by the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League overall ranking.[13]

Key

	Promoted in previous season
	Relegated in previous season

League A Team Prv Rank  Spain 1  Croatia 2  Italy 3  Netherlands 4  Denmark 5  Portugal 6  Belgium 7  Hungary 8   Switzerland 9  Germany 10  Poland 11  France 12  Israel 17  Bosnia and Herzegovina 18  Serbia 19  Scotland 20	League B Team Prv Rank  Austria 13  Czech Republic 14  England 15  Wales 16  Finland 21  Ukraine 22  Iceland 23  Norway 24  Slovenia 25  Republic of Ireland 26  Albania 27  Montenegro 28  Georgia 33  Greece 34  Turkey 35  Kazakhstan 36
League C Team Prv Rank  Romania 29  Sweden 30  Armenia 31  Russia[lower-alpha 1] 32  Luxembourg 37  Azerbaijan 38  Kosovo 39  Bulgaria 40  Faroe Islands 41  North Macedonia 42  Slovakia 43  Northern Ireland 44 TBD[lower-alpha 2] 45–48 TBD[lower-alpha 2] 45–48  Estonia 49  Latvia 50	League C or D[lower-alpha 2] Team Rank  Cyprus 45  Belarus 46  Lithuania 47  Gibraltar 48 League D Team Prv Rank TBD[lower-alpha 2] 45–48 TBD[lower-alpha 2] 45–48  Moldova 51  Malta 52  Andorra 53  San Marino 54  Liechtenstein 55

The draw for the league phase will take place in Paris, France, on 8 February 2024, along with UEFA Congress.[15] The seeding has yet to be announced. The congress and draw were originally planned to take place in Madrid, but were relocated due to the Luis Rubiales scandal.[16][17][18]

The first and second legs will be played in March 2025.

The results of each team will be used to calculate the overall ranking of the competition.[6]

• Official website