© AFP
The European Football Federation UEFA has approved new formats for the Nations League and the European qualifications for European and World Championships at its board meeting in Nyon. The intention is to make both competitions more attractive, without increasing the number of matches. The new formats will be used from September 2024.
Bron: BELGIAN
The Nations League will be expanded with an extra knockout round, but the qualifications will be more compact. In the A-liga of the Nations League, the group winners and runners-up will now play quarter-finals (back and forth) for a place in the Final Four. That will happen in March, bridging the gap between the group stage, which ends at the end of November, and the Final Four in June. The countries that finish third in the A league and the runners-up of the B league play play-offs for promotion or retention, as do the numbers three in the B league and the runners-up of the C -league.
In the European qualifiers there will be twelve groups of five or four countries (instead of ten groups of six or five). Qualifications will begin in March for most countries in a group of five. The countries that are then active in the Nations League will start in June. Countries that have been drawn in a group of four will play their first match in September. The twelve group winners qualify for the final round. The countries that finish in second place are either directly qualified, or still have to play play-offs (with countries from the Nations League for the European Championship).
The UEFA board also decided on Wednesday to host the European Super Cup in Athens in 2023. Initially, Kazan in Russia was designated as the host city. The meeting between the Champions League and the Europa League winner will be played on Wednesday, August 16 at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in the Greek capital. Slovakia was awarded the organization of the European U21 Championship in 2025.
