UEFA Nations League
The UEFA Nations League is an international European football competition played by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The competition was devised to minimise friendlies and give nations competitive encounters with equally ranked teams. Teams from all the European associations compete in a league structure featuring promotion and relegation. The first tournament began in September 2018, with the four group winners from League A qualifying for the first finals, played in Portugal in June 2019. The host team, Portugal defeated the Netherlands in the final to become the inaugural competition winners. In 2021 France won the trophy by beating Spain in the host country Italy who got 3rd place by beating Belgium. Fast forward to 2023 Spain won by beating Croatia in penalties. The current champions are Portugal, who defeated holders Spain in the 2025 final to secure their second title. Adoption Since 1999, va ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#Asia and Europe, transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan, as well as the West Asian countries of Cyprus, Armenia and Israel. UEFA consists of 55 national association List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), members. Since 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended all Russian national teams and clubs from any FIFA and UEFA competitions. UEFA consists of the national football associations of Europe, and runs national and club competitions including the UEFA European Championship, European Championship, UEFA Nations League, Nations League, UEFA Champions League, Champions League, UEFA Europa League, Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Conference League, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Gianni Infantino
Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino (); (born 23 March 1970) is a Swiss-Italian Association football, football Administrator (business), administrator and the president of the FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) since 26 February 2016. He was re-elected on 5 June 2019 and on 16 March 2023. On 10 January 2020, he was also elected a member of the International Olympic Committee. As President of FIFA, he oversaw the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, which he described as "the best World Cup ever" and for which he accepted Order of Friendship medal given to him by Vladimir Putin. He oversaw the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar during which time he defended or minimized controversies surrounding Qatar's human rights record, again describing it as "the best World Cup ever." He played a key role in the selection of Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup, as he advocated for a Saudi bid and restricted the hosting eligibility, which reduced the number of potential co ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Promotion And Relegation
Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes called open leagues. In a system of promotion and relegation, the best-ranked team(s) in a lower division are ''promoted'' to a higher division for the next season, and the worst-ranked team(s) in the higher division are ''relegated'' to the lower division for the next season. During the season, teams that are high enough in the league table that they would qualify for promotion are sometimes said to be in the ''promotion zone'', and those at the bottom are in the ''relegation zone'' (colloquially the ''drop zone'' or ''facing the drop''). These can also involve being in zones where promotion and relegation is not automatic but subject to a playoff, such as in the EFL Championship where teams 3rd to 6th enter a playoff for promotion to the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Two-legged Tie
In sports (especially association football), a two-legged tie is a contest between two teams which comprises two matches or "legs", with each team as the home team in one leg. The winning team is usually determined by aggregate score, the sum of the scores of the two legs, for example, if the scores of the two legs are: *First leg: Team-A 1-0 Team-B *Second leg: Team-B 3-3 Team-A Then the aggregate score will be Team-A 4–3 Team-B, meaning team A wins the tie. In some competitions, a tie is considered to be drawn if each team wins one leg, regardless of the aggregate score. Two-legged ties can be used in knockout cup competitions and playoffs. In North America, the equivalent term is ''home-and-away series'' or, if decided by aggregate, ''two-game total-goals series''. Use In association football, two-legged ties are used in the later stages of many international club tournaments, including the UEFA Champions League and the Copa Libertadores; in many domestic cup compe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Third Place Playoff
Many sports playoffs and knockout tournaments include a third place playoff, third place match, bronze medal game, or consolation game to decide which competitor or team will be credited with finishing third and fourth. This game is typically competed by the competitors or teams that lost in the semi-finals of the tournament that they competed in. Some tournaments may use the third place playoff to determine who wins the bronze medal, while other tournaments need to hold a third place playoff for seeding purposes if three or all four semi-finalists advance to another tournament. Social psychology studies have found that bronze medalists who had won a third place playoff were significantly happier than silver medalists who had lost a championship final. In tournaments that do not award medals or have the third place finisher advance to something else, a third place playoff is a classification match that serves little more than as a consolation to the losing semi-finalists. A con ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Pre-show Of The Nations League Finals 2021 In Milan, Italy
A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fixture, or a single game), including panel discussions, reports filed from the sites of the day's game, interviews with players and other personnel (such as coaches), and other feature segments. The networks that broadcast the NFL were the first networks to create and air pre-game shows. CBS was the first to broadcast a sports pre-game show in 1964, when the network launched a 15-minute regional sports program that interviewed players and coaches and featured news and features about the league. The show aired immediately before games on CBS. The show originated in studio and live from the fields, and featured broadcaster Jack Buck. In 1967, the show grew to 30 minutes in length and in 1976, aired a new 90-minute “Super Bowl Special” befo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2018–19 UEFA Nations League D
The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League D was the fourth and lowest division of the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League, 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international Association football, football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. Format League D consisted of the lowest 16 UEFA members ranked from 40–55, who were split into four groups of four. The top two teams of each group, as well as the best ranked third-place team, were promoted to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League C. In addition, League D was allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from League D which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals competed in the play-offs for each division, which were played in October and November 2020. The play-off berths were first allocated to the group winners, and if any of the group winners had already qualified for the European Championship finals, then ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2018–19 UEFA Nations League C
The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League C was the third division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. Format League C consisted of 15 UEFA members ranked from 25 to 39, which were split into four groups (one group of three and three groups of four). The top two teams of each group were promoted to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League B, and the bottom four ranked teams were initially relegated to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League D (the bottom teams of Group 2, 3, and 4, along with the lowest ranked third-placed team of League C). However, following UEFA announcement of format changes for the next edition's groups in September 2019, none of the 2018–19 League C teams were relegated to League D. In addition, League C was allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. The play-off berths were first allocated to each Nations Le ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2018–19 UEFA Nations League B
The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League B was the second division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. Format League B consisted of 12 UEFA members ranked from 13 to 24, split into four groups of three. The winners of each group were promoted to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League A. The third-placed team of each group was initially to be relegated to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League C, but remained in League B following UEFA's reformatting of the next edition's groups. In addition, League B was allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from League B which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals competed in the play-offs for each division, which were played in October and November 2020. The play-off berths were first allocated to the group winners, and if any of the group winners had a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2018–19 UEFA Nations League A
The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League A was the top division of the 2018–19 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. League A culminated with the Nations League Finals in June 2019, which crowned Portugal as the inaugural champions of the UEFA Nations League. Format League A consisted of the top 12 ranked UEFA members, split into four groups of three. The winners of each group advanced to the UEFA Nations League Finals. The third-placed team of each group was initially to be relegated to the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League B, but remained in League A following UEFA's reformatting of the next edition's groups. The Nations League Finals took place in June 2019 and was played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings, along with the administrative home teams for the third place play-off an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2020–21 UEFA Nations League
The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League was the second season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA. The competition was held from September to November 2020 (league phase), October 2021 (Nations League Finals) and March 2022 (relegation play-outs). Portugal were the defending champions, having won the inaugural 2019 finals. However, they failed to qualify for the 2021 finals after finishing second in their group behind France. None of the teams that had qualified for the previous UEFA Nations League Finals qualified for the 2021 edition. France won the final 2–1 against Spain for their first UEFA Nations League title. Format On 24 September 2019, UEFA announced that a revised format would be used for the 2020–21 edition, the second season of the competition. The 55 UEFA national teams were divided into four leagues, with Leagues A, B and C featuring sixteen teams eac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Astana
Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim (river), Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, though administered as a city with special status separately from the rest of the region. Initially founded as Akmoly in 1830, the city was later renamed Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, and Akmola before adopting the name ''Astana'' in 1998, which means "capital city" in Kazakh. In 2019, the city briefly adopted the name Nur-Sultan in honor of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, but it returned to the name ''Astana'' in 2022. Astana’s history is marked by rapid growth, especially after becoming the capital. Its transformation into a modern and planned city was guided by a master plan designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. Today, Astana is known for its futuristi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |