Interesting news emerged from the meeting of its Executive Committee UEFAwhich took place today (25/1) in Nyon, Switzerland.
The European football federation has decided a series of changes for the qualifiers of major international events (EURO, World Cup), while added another knockout round in the Nations League.
Nations League
Another knockout round will be added to the competition, with its matches taking place in March, with the group stage concluding in November.
Initially, the teams that will have finished in the first two places of the A category groups will compete in double matches and the winners of the pairs will advance to the Final-4 of the competition.
In addition, the teams that will finish third in the groups of the A category will also play double matches with the teams that will finish second in the B category and respectively the thirds of the B category and the second ones of the C category will also give double games in pairs, which will decide who will get promoted and who will be relegated.
Qualifiers for EURO and World Cup
The qualifying groups will consist of 12 groups of four or five teams, all of whom will face their opponents home and away.
The teams that finish first will qualify directly to the finals, while the second will either qualify directly or play playoffs with the teams that will emerge from the Nations League.
In addition, UEFA stated that all these changes will take effect after EURO 2024, while the Pan European Cup will continue to be held with the participation of 24 teams. Finally, he added that the strict protocol that existed regarding the return of footballers who have contracted Covid is being withdrawn.
The statements of the president of UEFA, Alexander Ceferin:
“The creation of the Nations League was a complete success, since we replaced the friendlies with highly interesting games. Now, we are introducing another knockout round to the competition, giving teams a better chance of qualifying. The new format in the qualifiers will give everyone an equal chance of qualifying and promises to offer us even more interest”.
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