This past couple of weeks, there has been a couple of rounds of Nations League games for most teams (for Scotland and Ukraine, they have played three times, including each other twice).
Now those games are complete we now know where we stand in this tournament in terms of which teams will be promoted and relegated from Leagues A, B, C and D, as well as who the four teams will be competing in the Nations League Semi Finals next year.
In this article, we are going to round up how the tournament will look the next time it gets underway as well as focus on the four teams who will be competing to win the tournament as a whole in the Netherlands next year.
Given that each of the four leagues (A,B,C and D)is split up into four groups, we are going to focus on the league as a whole, rather than the finishing positions within each group as that doesn’t really matter in the context of how the tournament will look next time.
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Nations League Round Up 2022/23
League A
Moving forward to contest the Nations League Semi Finals in Netherlands in June 2023 and who will also play in Nations League A next time are:
- Croatia
- Italy
- Netherlands
- Spain
The teams retaining their place in Nations League A are:
- Denmark
- France
- Portugal
- Switzerland
- Hungary
- Germany
- Portugal
- Poland
The teams relegated from Nations League A to Nations League B are:
- Austria
- Czech Republic
- England
- Wales
League B
The teams promoted from Nations League B into Nations League A are as follows:
- Scotland
- Israel
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Serbia
The teams that will remain in League B for the next Nations League tournament are:
- Ukraine
- Republic of Ireland
- Iceland
- Albania*
- Finland
- Montenegro
- Norway
- Slovenia
The teams that will be relegated from League B to League C for the next Nations League are:
- Armenia
- Russia*
- Romania
- Sweden
*Albania finished third in their group as only 3 teams contested the group as Russia were banned from competing. Nations League organisers UEFA have announced that Russia will be relegated to League C, although their participation in the 2024/25 tournament will likely depend on the situation in Ukraine at that time.
League C
The teams promoted from Nations League C into Nations League B are as follows:
- Turkey
- Greece
- Kazakhstan
- Georgia
The teams that will remain in League C for the next Nations League tournament are:
- Luxembourg
- Faroe Islands
- Kosovo
- Northern Ireland
- Azerbaijan
- Slovakia
- Bulgaria
- North Macedonia
The teams that will contest the two-legged playouts to decide which two teams to be relegated from League C to League D for the next Nations League are:
- Gibraltar v Cyprus
- Lithuania v Belaris
League D
The teams promoted from Nations League D into Nations League C are as follows:
- Latvia
- Estonia
The teams that will remain in League D for the next Nations League tournament are:
- Moldova
- Andorra
- Liechtenstein
- Malta
- San Marino
- Playout Loser 1
- Playout Loser 2
A Big Change Set For The 2024/25 Nations League Tournament?
It should be noted at this point that UEFA are in discussion with the CONMEBOL federation, which controls South American international football, to allow South American teams to participate in the Nations League from the 2024/25 tournament.
If that is the case, then there is the very real prospect of the ten teams that compete in the Copa America being incorporated into the competition, although which League they would join and how many teams would accept the invitation remains unknown.
This would mean that the following ten teams could be set to participate in the next tournament:
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Chile
- Colombia
- Ecuador
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
One can only assume that the World Rankings may be used to spread the ten teams across the four leagues as things stand, unless UEFA and CONMEBOL decide that a reworking of the league is required to incorporate each team fully.
If they decide to incorporate the teams into the existing structure then I would imagine the ten teams would be spread amongst the leagues, most likely based on their FIFA rankings which would likely mean a distribution as follows:
- League A – Brazil (1), Argentina (3), Uruguay (13), Colombia (17)
- League B – Peru (21), Chile (29), Ecuador (44), Paraguay (50)
- League C – Venezuela (56), Bolivia (81)
- League D – None
This would mean that either there would be four groups of five teams, or more likely five groups of four teams in Leagues A and B (due to how the Nations League fits into the calendar).
It may well also be the case that including Venezuela and. Bolivia in League C may require two more additional teams from League D to be moved into League C to make a further five groups of four, which would leave League D with just five teams.
Logistically, this would make a five-team single division League D possible, but that would have to be worked into the existing schedule somehow.
Another possibility is that UEFA may invite certain other teams from other parts of the world, such as the United States of America, Mexico, Jamaica and Canada from CONCACAF, or perhaps South Korea, Japan or Australia from the Asian confederation, or perhaps teams from Africa such as Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria or similar.
What is certain is that the next Nations League may well look very different to those that have preceded it.
Furthermore UEFA have already spared a number of teams relegated in the first tournament with a structure change and there’s every chance they could do so again.
Nations League Previous Winners
There have been just two Nations League finals in the newly established tournaments history.
In the first, Portugal landed the trophy as the inaugural winners, landing the victory on home soil by beating the Netherlands in the final.
Then in the last tournament France achieved the win defeating Spain in the final which was hosted in Italy.
Following tradition of one of the four semi final qualifiers hosting the tournament, the Netherlands will host the next Nations League semi finals and final, with Spain, Italy and Croatia competing to be the third team to etch their name onto the trophy.
We will bring you more coverage of these games when they are due to be played from June 14th to 18th in 2023.
