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UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE ANNOUNCED

On Thursday 26th January, UEFA announced a new tournament for national sides- the UEFA Nations League. The announcement has many football fans struggling to understand what the tournament is.

What is the UEFA Nations League?

The UEFA Nations League is an attempt to reduce meaningless international friendlies. There are four leagues with promotion and relegation between leagues.

The tournament will start in September 2018 and run until March 2020.

How Will it Work?

There will be four leagues (A-D) and four groups within each league. Group matches will organised in pairs for September, October and November 2018.

  • League A will have the twelve top ranked European nations and consist of four groups of three
  • League B will be nations ranked 13th- 24th. This will also consist of four groups of three.
  • League C will be nations ranked 25th- 39th. This will consist of three groups of four and one group of three.
  • League D will be nations ranked 40th-55th. This will consist of four groups of four.

The bottom team in each group will be relegated to the league below. The top team in the groups for leagues B, C and D will be promoted to the league above.

The group winners in league A will go on to play in a Final Four competition in June 2019. The teams will be drawn into semi finals and then a final to determine the UEFA Nations League champion.

 

What Does it Mean for the European Championships?

Overall UEFA Nations League rankings will be used to determine the draws for European Championship qualifying groups.

There will be another chance for nations to qualify for the European championships via the Nations League Playoffs. These play off matches will take place in March 2020 for the 2020 European Championships.

Each of the four Nation Leagues will have four play off places. The winners of each group will be given a play off place. If a team has already qualified for the European Championships (through standard qualification) then their play off place will be allocated to the next best team in that league.

The sixteen teams who are in the UEFA National League play-offs will then be split into four groups of four. Within each group will be two semi finals and a final to determine who qualifies from that group.

 

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