The 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals will be the final tournament of the 2022–23 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 third 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 ...

. The tournament will be held from 14 to 18 June 2023 in the Netherlands, and will be contested by the four group winners of Nations League A. The tournament will consist of two semi-finals, a third place play-off and final to determine the champions of the UEFA Nations League.

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

are the defending champions, having won the 2021 finals. However, they finished third in their group and are unable to defend their title.

Format

The Nations League Finals will take place in June 2023 and will be contested by the four group winners of

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 ...

. The four teams were each drawn into a five-team group (rather than a six-team group) for the

UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying tournament is an upcoming Association football, football competition that will be played from March 2023 to March 2024 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams that will join the automatically qualified ...

group stage, thereby leaving the June 2023 window available for the Nations League Finals. The Nations League Finals will take place over five days and be played in single-leg knockout matches, consisting of two semi-finals on 14 and 15 June (the first of which features the host team), and a third place play-off and final three days after the second semi-final on 18 June 2023. The semi-final pairings will be determined by means of an open draw. All matches in the tournament will utilise the

goal-line technology In many outdoor ball sports, a goal line is a line in front of goal post and which a team attempts to advance the ball or puck towards to score a goal or points. In particular, see: * Football pitch for usage of the term in soccer * Goal line (gri ...

and

video assistant referee The video assistant referee (VAR) is a match official in association football who reviews decisions made by the referee. The assistant video assistant referee (AVAR) is a current or former referee appointed to assist the VAR in the video ope ...

(VAR) systems. In the Nations League Finals, if the scores are level at the end of normal time: *In the semi-finals and final, 30 minutes of

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 ...

will be played. If the score is still level after extra time, the winner will be determined by 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 ...

. *In the third place play-off, extra time will not be played, and the winner will be determined by a

Qualified teams

The four group winners of

qualified for the Nations League Finals.

Host selection

The Netherlands was confirmed as the host country by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting on 29 November 2022. Only League A teams could bid for the Nations League Finals, and only one of the four participants is selected as hosts. UEFA requires the tournament to be played at two Category 4 stadiums, each with at least 30,000 net seating capacity. The stadiums were to ideally be located in the same host city or up to approximately apart. UEFA envisioned the larger of the stadiums to host the first semi-final (featuring the host team) and the final. The bidding timeline was as follows: *28 February 2022: Applications formally invited *13 April 2022, 16:00

CEST CEST or cest may refer to: * Central European Summer Time (UTC+2), daylight saving time observed in the central European time zone * Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory * Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer, a subset of Magnetization transfer in ...

: Closing date for registering intention to bid (non-binding) *14 April 2022: Bid requirements made available to bidders *May 2022: Opening workshop for bidders *July/August 2022: Technical calls with bidders *7 September 2022, 16:00 CEST: Closing date for submission of preliminary bid dossier *5 October 2022, 16:00 CEST: Closing date for submission of final bid dossier *29 November 2022: Host appointment by the UEFA Executive Committee On 13 April 2022, UEFA announced that

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

had declared interest in hosting the tournament. As all four associations form

Group A4 A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

, the group winner is in line to be appointed as the host, provided that the associations submit bids which meet UEFA's requirements.

and

were unable to win Group A4 following their results on 14 June 2022, leaving Belgium and the Netherlands as potential hosts. On 25 September 2022, the

won Group A4 over

and advanced to the Nations League Finals, thereby automatically winning hosting rights, which were confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 29 November 2022.

Venues

De Kuip Stadion Feijenoord (), more commonly known by its nickname De Kuip (, the Tub), is a stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was completed in 1937. The name is derived from the Feijenoord district in Rotterdam, and from the club with the same na ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

and

De Grolsch Veste De Grolsch Veste (, en, The Grolsch Fortress, previously known as ''Arke Stadion'' ) is the stadium of football club FC Twente. It is located in Enschede, Netherlands, at the Business & Science Park, near the University of Twente. The stadium h ...

Enschede Enschede (; known as in the local Twents dialect) is a municipality and city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Overijssel and in the Twente region. The eastern parts of the urban area reaches the border of the German city of Gronau ...

were confirmed as the venues for the tournament on 29 November 2022. Other potential stadiums, such as the

Johan Cruyff Arena The Johan Cruyff Arena ( nl, Johan Cruijff Arena ; officially stylised as Johan Cruijff ArenA) is the main stadium of the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam and the home stadium of football club AFC Ajax since its opening. Built from 1993 to 1996 ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

( the largest in the country) and the

Philips Stadion The Philips Stadion () is a football stadium in Eindhoven, Netherlands. As the home of PSV Eindhoven (Philips Sport Vereniging), it is therefore also known as PSV Stadion. With a capacity of 36,500, it is the third-largest football stadium in th ...

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast Ente ...

, at the UEFA headquarters in

Nyon Nyon (; outdated German language, German: or ; outdated Italian language, Italian: , ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in Nyon District in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilomet ...

, Switzerland. For scheduling purposes, the host team was allocated to the first semi-final as the administrative home team. The administrative home team for both the third place play-off and final were predetermined as the teams which advanced from semi-final 1.

Squads

Each national team has to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom have to be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament. If a player becomes injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation from the tournament before his team's first match, he will be replaced by another player.

Bracket

Semi-finals

Semi-final 1

Semi-final 2

Third place play-off

Final

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Uefa Nations League Finals 2023

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

2022–23 in Dutch football International association football competitions hosted by the Netherlands June 2023 sports events in Europe 2022–23 in Croatian football 2022–23 in Italian football 2022–23 in Spanish football