UEFA will introduce a Nations League tournament for women's international teams as part of a major shake-up of the women's game.
The revamp will be linked to European qualification and is set to come into force in the lead-up to UEFA Women’s EURO 2025, starting in autumn 2023. As with the men’s Nations League, countries will be divided into leagues based on their ranking.
Within each league, national teams will compete in groups of three or four, with each team playing one home match and one away match against all the other teams in their group. At the end of each group stage, league rankings will be established to allow teams to be promoted or relegated for the next phase of the competition
The best four teams at the end of the group stage will contest the Nations League finals. The finals will be played in single-leg knockout matches, with semi-finals, a third-place match and a final.
The Nations League rankings will also help to establish the starting league position teams will have in the European Qualifiers phase. Therefore, in the upcoming European Qualifiers:
• The winners and runners-up of League A stay in League A
• The winners of Leagues B and C will be promoted to the next league;
• All fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B, as well as the lowest-ranked third-placed team in League B, will be relegated to the next league;
• The two lowest-ranked runners-up and all third and fourth-placed teams in League C will stay in League C.
The European Qualifiers will start in spring 2024, following the conclusion of the UEFA Nations League, with the league stage played in the same format as the Nations League. Every four years, the Nations League finals will also serve as the European Qualifiers for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament.
The new format was officially ratified by UEFA's ruling executive committee on Wednesday after proposals to revamp the womens game were put forward to member associations last month. The changes will seek to make qualifiers more competitive, and will help to prevent lower-ranked teams from having to qualify against the heavyweights of the women's game.
The road to FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 will be played in the exact same format as for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025, with the only difference being an adjusted European Qualifiers play-off pathway due to a lesser number of qualifying slots for FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027.
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