The Executive Committee Approves New Changes to the UEFA Nations League

The UEFA Executive Committee made changes to the format of the Nations League for the new edition

New adjustments

The UEFA Executive Committee approved a series of adjustments to the promotion and relegation system for the 2026-2027 Nations League on Tuesday, to facilitate the transition to the new format that the competition will have starting from the 2028-2029 edition, with three leagues instead of four.

With the change in the model that was approved in May 2026, each league will be made up of three groups of six teams that will play six matches against five different rivals: at home or away against teams from different pots and at home or away against the rival from their own pot.

League C will include a group of 7 teams, whose schedule will start a window earlier.

The quarter-finals, the final four, and the promotion/relegation playoffs will remain unchanged.

According to the adjustments approved this Tuesday, the new promotion and relegation system will be based on the ranking of the teams at the end of the league phase of the competition for the 2026-2027 season, which will start next 24th with Portugal as the defending champion and Spain as the runner-up.

The A/B playoffs will be contested by the two lowest-ranked teams among the third-placed teams in League A and the two highest-ranked teams among the fourth-placed teams, against the four runners-up (second-placed) teams from League B.

The B/C playoffs will be played by the four teams in fourth place in League B against the four runners-up (second) of League C.

The four group winners of League B will be promoted to League A.

The two lowest-ranked fourth-place teams in League A will be relegated to League B.

The four winners of the A/B playoff eliminations will play in League A and the four losers will play in League B.

The four group winners of League C will be promoted to League B.

The four winners of the B/C playoff eliminations will play in League B and the four losers in League C.

Since there will no longer be a League D, all the teams from League D will be promoted to League C.

The composition of League A for the 2028-2029 season will include the 8 quarter-finalists of League A; the 2 best-ranked third-place teams of League A; the 4 group winners of League B; and the 4 winners of the League A/B playoffs.

UEFA announced that the next meeting of its Executive Committee will be held in Belfast (Northern Ireland) on December 7, the day after the draw for the qualifying phase of the 2028 European Championship in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, which will take place in the same city. EFE