UEFA Nations League

A league-format competition between national teams organized by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations), launched in 2018 and operated with promotion and relegation plus a Finals.

UEFA Nations League

Overview

The UEFA Nations League is a league-format football competition between European national teams organized by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations). It was founded in 2018, with its first matches held in September of that same year, and it aims to replace existing friendly matches in order to raise the competitiveness of matches and to create group compositions that reflect the differences in ability between national teams. It is divided into four tiers — Leagues A, B, C, and D — with promotion and relegation, and in the top League A, the final champion is decided through the Finals (a knockout tournament).

Key Details

Background of Establishment

To address the problem that friendly matches between European national teams were excessively numerous and lacking in competitiveness, UEFA announced the concept of a Nations League starting in 2014. The intent was to convert the existing international friendly match schedule into a competition format, thereby giving every match a ranking and a stake, and to provide meaningful matches even for smaller and mid-sized football nations. With the opening of the first season in September 2018, it established itself as a major pillar of the European football calendar.

Competition Structure

Participating nations are classified into the four tiers of Leagues A, B, C, and D according to ranking and results. Each league is in turn divided into three to four groups, and group matches are played in a home-and-away or single-match format. The winner of each group in League A advances to the Finals, while the bottom team of each group in each league is relegated to the lower league, and the first-place team of each group in the lower league is promoted to the higher league. In the first season, 2018-19, Leagues A, B, and C each consisted of 12 teams and League D of 16 teams, but the number of participating nations and the group composition method have since been adjusted several times.

Finals

The Finals, in which the four group winners of League A participate, are conducted as semifinals and a final, and are held over a short period in the host country. In the first Finals, held in Portugal in 2019, Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in the final to become the inaugural champion. In 2021, France beat Spain 2-1 to win the title, and in 2023, Spain drew 0-0 with Croatia and then won 5-4 on penalties to reach the top.

Qualification for UEFA Euro Play-offs

The Nations League is also linked to qualification for the play-offs for a place in the finals of the UEFA European Championship (Euro). The method is to grant teams that failed to qualify for the finals through the Euro qualifiers an opportunity to take part in the play-offs based on their Nations League results. Thanks to this system, teams in the lower leagues can also keep alive the possibility of reaching the Euro finals, and the importance of the competition has grown even further.

Women's Competition and Other Continents

In 2023, UEFA newly launched the UEFA Women's Nations League, introducing the same league and promotion/relegation structure for women's national teams. In addition, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) has also operated its own CONCACAF Nations League since 2019, and the Nations League format has thus spread to other continents as well.

Latest Trends

In the 2024-25 season, League D was operated with only a small number of teams and was effectively reduced, and a reorganization to abolish League D and merge it into League C starting from the 2026-27 season has been confirmed. Accordingly, the overall league structure is to be simplified into three tiers — A, B, and C — and the group composition and promotion/relegation methods are also to be reorganized. In the 2024-25 Finals held in Germany in June 2025, Portugal drew 2-2 with Spain in the final and then won 5-3 on penalties to claim its second title overall, while Cristiano Ronaldo continued the competition's all-time scoring record. Meanwhile, each country is using the Nations League as a stage for testing its strength in connection with World Cup and Euro qualifiers, and concerns from players' associations about schedule congestion are proceeding alongside discussions on expanding the competition. The Women's Nations League is likewise trending toward a continuously growing scale, with discussions after Euro 2025 about expanding the number of participating nations and raising prize money.