The 2024-2025 edition kicks off with several new features and a revised format.
For this fourth edition which begins this first week of September 2024, several new features have been implemented, notably with quarter-finals and promotion/relegation play-offs.
To add to the stakes, four tickets to the play-offs of the World Cup 2026 will also be distributed to the best teams in this Nations League that did not qualify through the playoffs. The Nations League is made up of four leagues in order of level, noted A, B, C and D, which each have sixteen teams divided into four groups for Leagues A, B and C, and seven teams divided into two groups for League D.
Unprecedented quarter-finals and play-offs
For the first time, quarter-finals will be held before the Final Four. The top two teams from each group in League A will therefore qualify for the knockout phase, whereas previously it was only the first team from each group. These quarter-finals will be played in classic two-legged matches, before the semi-finals and final, which will be played in a single match in a host country, as in previous editions.
Also for the first time, there will be promotion and relegation play-offs. As before, the last team in each group will go straight down to the lower league, and the first team in each group will be promoted to the higher league. The new feature is that each team placed third will play a two-legged play-off to stay up, against a second-place team in the lower league who will play for promotion. Since League D only has 7 teams, only the two teams that won their group will go up, and the two worst fourth-place teams in League C will go down.
Here is the composition of the groups for the Nations League with the presence of France in group 2 of League A with Belgium, Italy and Israel.
What is the schedule for the 2024-2025 Nations League?
The 2024-2025 Nations League schedule is divided into several days from September 5, 2024 to June 10, 2025, the date of the final of the competition. The group stage begins in September 2024, the quarter-finals in March 2025 and the Final Four in June 2025.
Here is the full schedule for the 2022-2023 Nations League:
- Day 1: September 5-7, 2024
- Day 2: September 8-10, 2024
- Day 3: October 10-12, 2024
- Day 4: October 13-15, 2024
- Day 5: November 14-16, 2024
- Day 6: November 17-19, 2024
- Quarter-finals: March 17-25, 2025.
- Semi-finals, small final and final: from June 2 to 10, 2025
- Dams: March 17-25, 2025
The Nations League is organized into four leagues. The top four and the four runners-up in League A qualify for the quarter-finals in two-legged matches, then the winners play in the Final Four (semi-finals + final). The winners of the groups in Leagues B, C and D will be promoted to the higher leagues and the last teams in Leagues A and B will be relegated to the lower leagues. Each team ranked third in its group will play a play-off in two-legged matches to stay up, against a second-place team in the lower league who will play for promotion. League D has only 7 teams, only the two teams that won their group are promoted, and the two worst fourth-place teams in League C are relegated.
The 2024-2025 Nations League will hand out four precious tickets to the 2026 World Cup play-offs. The top four nations in the Nations League overall standings (a 4th in a League A group is just ahead of a 1st in a League B group for example), who have not already qualified directly for the World Cup or the play-offs via the qualifiers, will win these tickets. These four teams will join the twelve teams that finished second in their group in the qualifiers, to be divided into four paths of four teams in the form of a semi-final and final in single matches, with each path winner qualifying for the World Cup.