More than a month and a half after EURO 2024 ends, national teams in Europe will enter the next journey, with the UEFA Nations League 2024-2025 starting in the FIFA Days in September.
The opening match at 23:00 on September 4 (Vietnam time), between Azerbaijan and Sweden in League C, but of course, all eyes are on League A.
What is UEFA Nations League?
The Nations League is a tournament held every two years with the participation of 54 teams that are members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The first Nations League took place in 2018-19 and the tournament is organized in a league structure, with upgrades and relegations.
UEFA said the tournament was designed "to reduce meaningless friendlies and facilitate teams to face teams with equal rankings in competition".
Which teams will participate in the 2024-2025 Nations League?
The 54 participating teams are divided into 4 Leagues based on their results in the 2022-2023 Nations League.
The teams are then divided into groups, again based on the UEFA Nations League 2022-2023 rankings:
League A
Group A1: Croatia, Portugal, Poland, Scotland
Group A2: Italy, Belgium, France, Israel
Group A3: Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Group A4: Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, Serbia
League B
Group B1: Czech Republic, Ukraine, Albania, Georgia
Group B2: UK, Finland, Republic of Ireland, Greece
Group B3: Austria, Norway, Slovenia, Kazakhstan
Group B4: Wales, Iceland, Montenegro, Turkey
League C
Group C1: Sweden, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Estonia
Group C2: Romania, Kosovo, Sip Island, Lithuania
Group C3: Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, Belarus
Group C4: Armenia, Faroe Islands, North Macedonia, Latvia
League D
Group D1: Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein
Group D2: Moldova, Malta, Andorra
Competition schedule
Round 1: September 5-7, 2024
Round 2: September 8-10, 2024
Round 3: October 10-12, 2024
Round 4: October 13-15, 2024
Round 5: 14,16/2024
Round 6: November 17-19, 2024
Live qualifying draw ceremony: November 2024
Live qualifying round: 20-25.3.2025
League A quarter-finals: 20-25.3.2025
Final round: June 4-8, 2025
Competition format
Each team in League A, B and C will play in their group, while the teams in League D will play 4 matches. The teams will play in home and away format.
The top and second-placed teams in each group in League A will advance to the quarter-finals (playing 2 rounds). The winning teams will qualify for the final round.
The fourth-placed teams in League A and B will automatically be relegated to League B and C. The two lowest-placed fourth-placed teams in League C will be relegated to League D.
The top 4 teams in League B and C, and the top 2 teams in League D, will automatically be promoted to League A, B and C.
Candidates for the 2024-2025 Nations League championship
Spain, the 2022-2023 Nations League champion and just crowned at EURO 2024, is one of the most promising candidates.
Former French, Portuguese and German champions are other leading candidates.
Teams that won the UEFA Nations League
2018-2019: Portugal (won the Netherlands 1-0 in the final).
2020-2021: France (won Spain 2-1 in the final)
2022-2023: Spain ( beat Croatia 5-4 after a penalty shootout in the final).
Bonus
The exact bonus for the 2024-2025 Nations League has not been revealed.
In the 2022-2023 Nations League, Spain earned 10.5 million Euros, while runner-up Croatia received 9 million Euros.
How is the World Cup qualifiers related to the UEFA Nations League?
The 2024-2025 Nations League will partly involve the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Europe.
The top 12 teams in each group will qualify directly for the World Cup, while the second-placed teams in each group will advance to the play-off round.
The 4 teams with the highest rankings in the Nations League but do not qualify in any of the above 2 ways will also enter the play-off round.
