2024/25 UEFA Nations League: All you need to know
The fourth edition of the UEFA Nations League begins with the league phase draw in Paris on Thursday 8 February 2024.
The league phase games will be played in autumn 2024, with the finals (to be staged by one of the four nations that qualify) set to take place in June 2025.
How will the league phase of the 2024/25 Nations League work?The 54 UEFA member associations participating in the league phase have been divided into four leagues based on their results in the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League. Teams are then divided into pots, again based on their 2022/23 UEFA Nations League rankings:
League APot 1: Spain, Croatia, Italy, NetherlandsPot 2: Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, HungaryPot 3: Switzerland, Germany, Poland, FrancePot 4: Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Scotland
• The League A draw will determine four groups of four teams. Full draw procedure available here.
• Each team will play six matches in their group, one home and one away against the other three nations in the group.
Final highlights: Croatia 0-0 Spain (4-5 pens)
Pot 1: Austria, Czechia, England, WalesPot 2: Finland, Ukraine, Iceland, NorwayPot 3: Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, MontenegroPot 4: Georgia, Greece, Türkiye, Kazakhstan
• The League B draw will determine four groups of four teams. Full draw procedure available here.
• Each team will play six matches in their group, one home and one away against the other three nations in the group.
League CPot 1: Romania, Sweden, Armenia, LuxembourgPot 2: Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Faroe IslandsPot 3: North Macedonia, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, CyprusPot 4: Belarus, Lithuania/Gibraltar*, Estonia, Latvia
• The League C draw will determine four groups of four teams. Full draw procedure available here.
• Each team will play six matches in their group, one home and one away against the other three nations in the group.
*To be determined following the 2022/23 play-outs in March 2024
League DPot 1: Lithuania/Gibraltar*, MoldovaPot 2: Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein
• The League D draw will determine two groups of three teams. Full draw procedure available here.
• Each team will play four matches in their group, one home and one away against the other two nations in the group.
*To be determined following the 2022/23 play-outs in March 2024
Fixture list procedureWhat changes have been made for the 2024/25 Nations League?The UEFA Nations League will be expanded with a new knockout round to be played in March 2025, thereby creating continuity between the group phase ending in November and the finals played in June.
The League A group winners and runners-up will participate in home-and-away quarter-finals, with the winners of these ties qualifying for the Final Four.
The fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B are automatically relegated to League B and C respectively. The two lowest-ranked fourth-placed teams in League C, meanwhile, are relegated to League D.
The four group winners in Leagues B and C, as well as the two group winners in League D, are automatically promoted to Leagues A, B and C respectively.
The third-ranked teams of League A and the runners-up of League B, as well as the third-ranked teams of League B and the runners-up of League C, will play a home-and-away promotion/relegation play-off.
There will also be play-offs between the two best-ranked fourth-placed teams from League C and the two runners-up from League D.
The expansion of the UEFA Nations League into the International Match Calendar window of March will only concern a selected number of teams and the remaining teams will already be available to start the European Qualifiers.
How will the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League Finals work?Semi-finals will take place on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 June 2025. The winners advance to the final on Sunday 8 June, while the two beaten semi-finalists will contest the match for third place earlier the same day.
Previous Nations League finals
NurPhoto via Getty Images
2019: Portugal 1-0 Netherlands (Porto)2021: France 2-1 Spain (Milan)2023: Croatia 0-0 Spain (aet, Spain win 5-4 on pens, Rotterdam)
League phase draw: 8 February 2024Matchday 1: 5-7 September 2024Matchday 2: 8-10 September 2024Matchday 3: 10-12 October 2024Matchday 4: 13-15 October 2024Matchday 5: 14-16 November 2024Matchday 6: 17-19 November 2024
Knockout round play-off draw: November 2024Knockout round play-offs: 20-25 March 2025Final tournament: 4-8 June 2025
What is the Nations League?Watch Spain lift Nations League trophy
The UEFA Nations League was devised to minimise meaningless friendlies and give nations competitive encounters with equally ranked teams.
Teams from all the European associations compete in a league structure featuring promotion and relegation. In the first edition of the tournament they were divided into 12 teams in League A, 12 in League B, 14 in League C and 16 in League D.
As outlined above, the 2024/25 edition will have 16 teams in Leagues A, B and C, with six in League D.
