UEFA Nations League: How does the 2024/25 format work?

What is the Nations League?

The Nations League was introduced by UEFA for the 2018/19 season with the intention of replacing friendly matches with more frequent competitive fixtures against European nations of comparable level.

What is the format?

All UEFA national teams were originally divided into divisions ‘leagues’ based on their UEFA coefficients following the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Within each league there are groups of three or four teams. The current 2024/25 format sees four groups of four across Leagues A, B and C, while League D is two groups of three.

Teams can be promoted or relegated from one league to another. Under the current rules, the teams that finish bottom of groups in Leagues A and B are automatically relegated, while third-placed teams will contest a two-legged play-off against runners-up from the league below. The winners of groups in League B, C and D are automatically promoted to the league above.

Relegation from League C is different in that the four last-placed teams go into a head-to-head league, whereby the two teams with the worst overall record are relegated to League D.

In previous years, only the four group winners in League A would advance to the knockout rounds, which consisted of single-legged semi-finals and a final/third-placed play-off played in the country of one of the four teams (where possible. If not, an alternate country will be chosen to host).

As of 2024/25, the top two from each four group will go into a quarter-final round which pits a group winner against a runner-up from another group. The winners on aggregate over the four two-legged, home-and-away ties will then advance to the Nations League Finals, which continue as above.