Huuhkajat plays its first match of the fall on Saturday against Greece. Several changes have been made to the League of Nations.
Finland plays Greece as a guest on Saturday 7 September. at 21:45. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and the app from 9 p.m.
The Finnish men’s national football team starts the autumn Nations League on Saturday with an away match against Greece.
The teams are divided in the familiar style into A, B, C and D leagues.
Finland plays in the B-league, which has a total of 16 teams. In addition to Greece, England and Ireland will play in Finland’s group.
In the previous Nations League, 2022–23, England played in the A League. The recent European Championship silver medalist was relegated to the B-League at that time, when it remained the jumbo of its own group. England failed to pick up a single win (three losses, three draws) against Italy, Hungary and Germany.
Finland kept its place in the B-League when it was the group runner-up after Bosnia-Herzegovina. Montenegro and Romania were left behind.
Ireland also kept its place in the B-League, as it was the third group ahead of Scotland and Ukraine. Armenia was left behind.
Greece were promoted from the C-League after winning their group, which also featured Kosovo, Northern Ireland and Cyprus.
The promotion qualifiers are new
When the group winners between the different leagues have previously risen and the group jumbos have fallen, now the second and third-placed groups still have a further stake.
For example, the group winners from the B league move up to the A league. The second-placed teams play the promotion qualifiers against the third-placed teams in the A-League. The third-placed teams were eliminated from their place in the B-League against the second-placed teams in the C-League. The group winners are relegated directly to the C-League.
In the past, promotion qualifiers between leagues were not organized.
In addition, earlier in the A-League, the group winners advanced directly to the best-four final tournament, where the champion of the Nations League was decided. Now the group winners of the A-League will first play the quarter-finals with the runners-up of the A-League group. The winners of these match pairs advance to the Final Four tournament.
Cash prizes and stakes
As usual, the Uefa Nations League has decent cash prizes. For example, the reigning champion of the Nations League, Spain, cleared a good 10 million euros from its previous season.
The teams already receive considerable sums of money for participating. It is 1.5 million for A-league teams and 500,000 euros for D-league. Bonuses are available for winning the block, ranging from 750,000 to 250,000 euros.
World Cup qualifying bonus
Success in the Nations League can also help in the quest for a place in the World Cup for the 2026 Games.
The World Cup qualifiers will be played between March 2025 and March 2026. 16 countries from Europe qualify for the World Cup. The group winners of all 12 World Cup qualifying groups go directly to the World Cup from the World Cup qualification.
The group runners-up of the World Cup qualification go to the further qualification. In addition, the four best group winners of the Nations League (those who did not make it to the World Cup qualifiers or the further qualification) qualify for the World Cup further qualification.
Who are the top four group winners will be decided based on the Nations League ranking. In this case, for example, the group winners of the A league are ahead of the group winners of the B league.
Finland plays Greece as a guest on Saturday 7 September. at 21:45. Live broadcast on TV2, Areena and the app from 9 p.m