2018–19 UEFA Nations League

2018–19 UEFA Nations League

The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was the inaugural season of the international association football competition. The league phase was played between September and November 2018, with the finals tournament for the group winners from League A taking place in Portugal in June 2019. Team performances in the league phase were used to seed teams for the qualifying group stage of UEFA Euro 2020, and awarded berths in the play-offs.

About 2018–19 UEFA Nations League in brief

Summary 2018–19 UEFA Nations LeagueThe 2018–19 UEFA Nations League was the inaugural season of the international association football competition. The league phase of the competition was played between September and November 2018, with the finals tournament for the group winners from League A taking place in Portugal in June 2019. Team performances in the league phase were used to seed teams for the qualifying group stage of UEFA Euro 2020, and awarded berths in the play-offs. Teams also competed for promotion and relegation to a higher or lower league. The 55 UEFA national teams were divided into four divisions : 12 teams in League A, 12 teams in League B, 15 teams inleague C, and 16 teams in league D. The four group winners of League A qualified for the Nations League Finals in June2019, which was played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. Host country Portugal was selected among the four qualified teams on 3 December 2018 by the UEFA Executive Committee. The winners of the final crowned as the UEFA NationsLeague champions.

The 2018-19 UEFA League was linked with UEFA Euro 2019 qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for UEFA Euro2020. The main qualifying process began in March 2019 instead of immediately in September 2018 following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and ended in November 2019. The format remained largely the same, although only 20 of the 24 spots for the finals tournaments were decided from theMain qualifying process, leaving four spots still to be decided. The top two teams in each group qualifying. The draw seeding was based on the overall rankings of the NationsLeague. The qualifiers were played on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2020. Unlike previous editions, the participants of theplay-offs were not decided based on results from the qualifyinggroup stage. Instead, 16 teams were selected based on their Nations League performance. The Nations League had its own path if at least four teams were available for the final tournament.