2024/25 UEFA Nations League: All you need to know
Monday, April 1, 2024
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Draw and match dates, who's playing who, and how it works – all you need to know about the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League.
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The fourth edition of the UEFA Nations League began 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.
Which sides will meet in the 2024/25 UEFA Nations League?
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: Czechia, Ukraine, Albania, Georgia
Group B2: England, Finland, Republic of Ireland, Greece
Group B3: Austria, Norway, Slovenia, Kazakhstan
Group B4: Wales, Iceland, Montenegro, Türkiye
League C
Group C1: Sweden, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Estonia
Group C2: Romania, Kosovo, Cyprus, 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
*Determined following the 2022/23 play-outs in March 2024
How did the draw for the league phase of the 2024/25 Nations League work?
The 54 UEFA member associations participating in the league phase were divided into four leagues based on their results in the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League. Teams were then divided into pots, again based on their 2022/23 UEFA Nations League rankings:
League A
Pot 1: Spain, Croatia, Italy, Netherlands
Pot 2: Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary
Pot 3: Switzerland, Germany, Poland, France
Pot 4: Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Scotland
• The League A draw determined 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 B
Pot 1: Austria, Czechia, England, Wales
Pot 2: Finland, Ukraine, Iceland, Norway
Pot 3: Slovenia, Republic of Ireland, Albania, Montenegro
Pot 4: Georgia, Greece, Türkiye, Kazakhstan
• The League B draw determined 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 C
Pot 1: Romania, Sweden, Armenia, Luxembourg
Pot 2: Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands
Pot 3: North Macedonia, Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus
Pot 4: Belarus, Lithuania*, Estonia, Latvia
• The League C draw determined 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.
*Determined following the 2022/23 play-outs in March 2024
League D
Pot 1: Gibraltar*, Moldova
Pot 2: Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein
• The League D draw determined 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.
*Determined following the 2022/23 play-outs in March 2024
What changes have been made for the 2024/25 Nations League?
The UEFA Nations League has been 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
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)
What are the dates for the 2024/25 Nations League?
Matchday 1: 5-7 September 2024
Matchday 2: 8-10 September 2024
Matchday 3: 10-12 October 2024
Matchday 4: 13-15 October 2024
Matchday 5: 14-16 November 2024
Matchday 6: 17-19 November 2024
Knockout round play-off draw: November 2024
Knockout round play-offs: 20-25 March 2025
League A quarter-finals: 20-25 March 2025
Final tournament: 4-8 June 2025
What is the Nations League?
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 has 16 teams in Leagues A, B and C, with six in League D.