WHAT EXACTLY IS THE UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE?

UEFA / Soccer

Written by Aaron Cantin

The latest tournament created to place the top stars in the world against each other, I present to you, the UEFA Nations League. OK, maybe that’s a bit harsh. UEFA did not create the Nations League with the idea of making this as large of an event as the FIFA World Cup, Euro Cup, or the UEFA Champions League. In fact, it was created for the exact opposite reason. The Nations League is more or less glorified exhibition games (although they do hold some World Cup qualification meaning) and I for one am here for it.

Source (Background Photo): UEFA

What the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has done was found a way to put a competitive twist on Friendly matches and prolong it to last the span of two years. No, you will not see trophy presentations, ceremonies, or any of the bells and whistles that make the large tournaments shiny and spectacular. What you will see is competitive matches against the top European teams in the world and the best players in the world fighting for results much more than you would with usual friendly matches. For those who don’t know how it works (I may or may not have had to fact-check this beforehand), here’s the run-down of the latest and greatest UEFA tournament.

The third edition of the UEFA Nations League kicked off in June 2022, and the Finals are scheduled for the same month a year later. As for the 2020/21 edition, the 2022/23 competition consists of three leagues of 16 teams each and a fourth of seven, the make-up decided by promotions and relegations from that second running. The groups were set by the draw in Lyon on December 16th – here’s the lowdown on how it all works.

Leagues A, B, and C all have 16 teams, which were drawn into four groups of four for the league phase. The remaining seven teams, in League D, were split into two groups, one of four and the other of three. In each case, teams play all their group opponents home and away in June and September 2022. Four of the six matchdays will be held in June due to the winter scheduling of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The four group winners in League A advance to the knockout Finals in June 2023. The group winners in the other three leagues will all be promoted for the 2024/25 edition. The teams finishing fourth in the groups in Leagues A and B will be relegated. The teams finishing fourth in the League C groups will enter the playouts in March 2024, with the two teams defeated in those ties moving to League D.

Here are the groups for this year’s Nation League:

League A

Group A1: France, Denmark, Croatia, Austria

Group A2: Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Czech Republic

Group A3: Italy, Germany, England, Hungary

Group A4: Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Wales

League B

Group B1: Ukraine, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Armenia

Group B2: Iceland, Russia*, Israel, Albania

Group B3: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Romania, Montenegro

Group B4: Sweden, Norway, Serbia, Slovenia

League C

Group C1: Turkey, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Faroe Islands

Group C2: Northern Ireland, Greece, Kosovo, Cyprus

Group C3: Slovakia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan

Group C4: Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Georgia, Gibraltar

League D

Group D1: Liechtenstein, Moldova, Andorra, Latvia

Group D2: Malta, Estonia, San Marino

How will the 2023 Nations League Finals work?

The four League A group winners will take part with, in principle, one appointed as host. The semi-finals will be played on 14 and 15 June 2023, with the final and third-place play-off to follow on 18 June.

Some notable results to this point have been England crashing out at home to Hungary 4-0 and Germany dominating Italy at home 5-2 (both of those results took place this week). France has also mightily struggled to go winless through the first four matches, sitting bottom of their group with two points.

All in all, UEFA has done a great job turning friendly matches into something more without overdoing it. The group stages still allow you to play with tactics as each game is not an elimination game while still leading up to some spectacular matches at the end. For the first time in a while, I will say well done UEFA.