The 2024–25 UEFA Nations League A is the top division of the 2024–25 edition of the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

, the fourth season of the international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

. League A will begin with the league phase in September 2024, and will culminate with the Nations League Finals in June 2025 to determine the champions of the competition. For the first time, a quarter-final round will be contested in League A by the group winners and runners-up, with the winners advancing to the Nations League Finals.

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are the defending champions, having won the 2023 finals.

Format

League A consists of the 16 top-ranked UEFA members in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League access list, split into four groups of four. Each team will play six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October and November 2024. On 25 January 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee approved a modified format for the Nations League after the league phase, with the following changes being implemented in League A: *A new quarter-final round to be played in March 2025 was introduced, thus creating continuity between the league phase ending in November 2024 and the Nations League Finals in June 2025. *The winners and runners-up of each group will advance to the quarter-finals, unlike previous editions where only the group winners advanced to the finals. *The four third-placed teams of League A will face the four runners-up of

League B League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

in the relegation play-offs, which were also introduced starting this season. The last-placed teams of each group will continue to be relegated directly to League B, while the third-placed teams will compete against the runners-up of League B to determine their permanence in the League A for the next season or their relegation to the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League B. The relegation play-offs will be played home-and-away over two-legs in March 2025, with the League A third-placed teams hosting the second leg. The quarter-finals will also be played home and away over two legs. In each tie, group winners will face a runner-up from a different group, with the group winner hosting the second leg. The four quarter-final winners will advance to the Finals. The Nations League Finals retain its previous format, which is played in a knockout format in June 2025, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings will be determined using an open draw. The host country will be selected by the UEFA Executive Committee, preferably hosted by one of the participating teams, with the winners of the final crowned as the champions of the UEFA Nations League. In all two-legged ties, the team that scores more goals on aggregate is the winner. If the aggregate score is level,

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

is played without the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

. If the score remains level after extra time, a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

is used to decide the winner.

Teams

The 16 League A teams includes the top 12 teams from the 2022–23 League A overall ranking and four promoted teams from the 2022–23 League B.

Team changes

The following were the team changes of League A from the 2022–23 season:

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returned to League A, after a one-season absence, by securing first place in its 2022–23 League B group with a 1–0 victory over

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on 23 September 2022.

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

reached the top flight of the UEFA Nations League for the first time, all three following similar paths, starting in

League C League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

in the inaugural edition and spending two seasons in League B before their promotion to League A.

Seeding

In the 2024–25 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2022–23 Nations League overall ranking, considering promotion and relegation between the leagues and the results of the

2023 UEFA Nations League Finals The 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals will be the final tournament of the 2022–23 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the third season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of ...

. The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed on 2 December 2023, and were based on the access list ranking. The draw for the league phase took place at the Maison de la Mutualité in

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, France, on 8 February 2024, 18:00

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. Each group contained one team from each pot.

Groups

The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 9 February 2024, the day following the draw. Times are

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, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1

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Group 2

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Group 3

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Group 4

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Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals will be held on 22 November 2024 in

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, Switzerland, along with the draw for the promotion/relegation play-offs.

Summary

The first legs will be played on 20 March, and the second legs will be played on 23 March 2025.

Matches

Times are

(

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), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses). ---- ---- ----

Nations League Finals

The host of the Nations League Finals will preferably be selected from the four qualified teams. The semi-finals pairings will be determined by means of an open draw. For scheduling purposes, a host team will be allocated to semi-final 1 as the administrative home team.

Bracket

Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Overall ranking

Following the league phase, the 16 League A teams will be ordered 1st to 16th in an interim overall ranking for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules: *The teams finishing first in the groups will be ranked 1st to 4th according to the results of the league phase. *The teams finishing second in the groups will be ranked 5th to 8th according to the results of the league phase. *The teams finishing third in the groups will be ranked 9th to 12th according to the results of the league phase. *The teams finishing fourth in the groups will be ranked 13th to 16th according to the results of the league phase. A final overall ranking will also be compiled, though this is only used to rank teams within their new leagues for the following edition of the competition.

Notes

References

External links

* {{2024–25 in European football (UEFA)

League A League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Leagues (band), ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full ...