The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior mens national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sports European governing body. It was created to replace meaningless friendlies with competitive matches, allowing nations to play against equally-ranked teams. The competition features promotion and relegation, and the 55 European national teams are divided into four leagues in accordance with UEFAs national association coefficient rankings. The first tournament began in September 2018, and the third edition has just been completed.
Key features of the UEFA Nations League include:
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League Structure: The competition comprises 16 teams in Leagues A, B, and C, and seven teams in League D. The group winners in Leagues B, C, and D gain promotion, while those who finish bottom of the groups in Leagues A and B are relegated.
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Promotion and Relegation: The competition features promotion and relegation, and the teams finishing fourth in the groups in Leagues A and B are relegated. The teams finishing fourth in the League C groups enter the play-offs, with the two teams defeated in those ties moving to League D.
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UEFA Nations League Finals: The four group winners of League A qualify for the UEFA Nations League Finals, which is a knockout tournament hosted by one of the quartet.
The UEFA Nations League is linked with the UEFA European Championship qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for the UEFA European Championship. For example, four spots at UEFA EURO 2020 were decided by play-offs and involved 16 teams that did not earn their place at those finals during qualification. The 16 teams were selected based on their Nations League performance before being divided into four paths, each containing four teams, with one team from each path qualifying for EURO. Three of the 24 places at UEFA EURO 2024 will be determined by play-off spots with 12 teams involved based on their performance in the 2022/23 Nations League.