UEFA Nations League Scores, Fixtures and Results

UEFA Nations League is UEFA’s biennial men’s international cup competition for Europe’s 55 national associations, created to give international football a meaningful competitive structure between major tournaments. It is organised by UEFA and combines league football, promotion and relegation with a knockout stage for the leading teams.

What is the UEFA Nations League?

The competition was launched in 2018, with the first match played on 6 September that year. Its central purpose is to replace a large proportion of traditional friendly matches with fixtures carrying sporting consequences. Nations are generally matched with opponents of a similar level, creating more balanced games while giving developing teams a route to improve and compete against stronger sides.

The Nations League sits within the UEFA national-team calendar rather than the club-football pyramid. All UEFA member associations are eligible to take part, and participation is arranged across four competitive tiers: League A, League B, League C and League D. Teams are placed in these leagues according to their performance and overall ranking from the preceding edition, with the draw using seeded pots to support a balanced distribution of teams.

How the league system works

Each league is divided into groups. Under the format used for the 2024–25 edition, Leagues A, B and C each contained four groups of four teams, while League D contained two groups of three. Teams normally play each group opponent home and away during the autumn international windows, producing a compact schedule of competitive fixtures across September, October and November.

League-phase matches use the standard scoring system: three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat. When teams finish level on points, the regulations use head-to-head criteria first, including points gained, goal difference and goals scored in the relevant matches, before applying wider group criteria where necessary. The detailed order of criteria is governed by the regulations for the relevant edition, so historical tables should be read in their season-specific context.

The league structure gives every group a clear objective. Group winners in Leagues B, C and D are candidates for promotion, while teams at the bottom of the higher leagues face relegation or a route through promotion and relegation play-offs, depending on the edition’s regulations. Two-legged ties may also determine which teams move between adjacent leagues. This movement creates a continuing cycle: success raises a nation into stronger company, while a poor campaign can place it in a lower tier for the next edition.

League A knockout stages and the Nations League title

The knockout structure has developed since the inaugural competition. In the original format, the four League A group winners advanced directly to a final tournament consisting of semi-finals, a third-place play-off and a final. From the 2024–25 edition, the League A phase was expanded to include quarter-finals: the four group winners and four runners-up progressed to two-legged quarter-final ties, with the winners moving into the semi-finals and final-stage tournament.

Knockout matches level after 90 minutes go to two 15-minute periods of extra time and, if the scores remain equal, a penalty shootout. The same principle applies to relevant promotion and relegation ties. The away-goals rule does not decide these UEFA ties. The winners of the final tournament lift the Nations League Trophy and become the overall champions for that edition.

Calendar, qualification and sporting importance

A typical edition spans two football seasons. The league phase is played during the autumn international windows, while promotion and relegation play-offs and, in the expanded format, League A quarter-finals are scheduled later in the cycle, generally in March. The semi-finals and final usually take place in June, fitting the competition between major summer international tournaments.

The trophy is the immediate prize, but the competition also affects the wider international landscape. Results influence a nation’s standing and can affect seeding for later qualification draws. In certain editions, strong Nations League performance can also provide a secondary play-off route for the UEFA European Championship or FIFA World Cup to teams that do not qualify through the primary qualification process. Such places depend on the regulations and qualification system for the specific tournament; they are not a permanent automatic entitlement.

History and governance

UEFA governs the competition through its regulations and determines the draw, match system, league allocation, progression routes and disciplinary framework for each edition. The concept was developed to revitalise international football during non-tournament years and to ensure that national teams have meaningful objectives throughout the cycle. Since its first matches in 2018, the UEFA Nations League has established a distinctive model in which competitive balance, promotion and relegation, and access to a championship final all form part of the same international competition.