The 2022–23 UEFA Nations League will be the third 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 will be held from June to September 2022 (league phase), June 2023 (Nations League Finals), and March 2024 (relegation play-outs).
France are the defending champions.
Format
The 55 UEFA national teams will be divided into four leagues, with Leagues A, B and C featuring 16 teams each, divided into four groups of four teams.
League D will feature 7 teams divided into two groups, with one containing four teams and the other containing three.
The teams are allocated to leagues based on the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League overall ranking.
Each team will play six matches within their group, except for one group in League D which will play four, using the home-and-away round-robin format in June (quadruple matchdays) and September 2022 (double matchdays).
In the top division, League A, teams compete to become the UEFA Nations League champions.
The four group winners of League A qualify for the Nations League Finals in June 2023, which is 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 and final, are determined by means of a draw.
The host country will be selected among the four qualified teams by the UEFA Executive Committee, with the winners of the final crowned as the Nations League champions.
Teams also compete for promotion and relegation to a higher or lower league.
In Leagues B, C and D, the group winners are promoted, while the last-placed teams of each group in Leagues A and B are relegated.
As League C has four groups while League D has only two, the two League C teams which are to be relegated will be determined by play-outs in March 2024.
Based on the Nations League overall ranking of the fourth-placed teams, the first-ranked team will face the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team will face the third-ranked team.
Two ties will be played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home (the higher-ranked team will host the second leg).
The team that scores more goals on aggregate over the two legs will remain in League C, while the loser will be relegated to League D.
If the aggregate score is level, extra time is played (the away goals rule is not applied).
If the score remains level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner.
Tiebreakers for group ranking
If two or more teams in the same group are equal on points on completion of the league phase, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:
Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings.
If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 11 apply;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of wins in all group matches;
Higher number of away wins in all group matches;
Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card).
Position in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League access list.
Notes Criteria for league ranking
Individual league rankings are established according to the following criteria:
Position in the group;
Higher number of points;
Superior goal difference;
Higher number of goals scored;
Higher number of goals scored away from home;
Higher number of wins;
Higher number of wins away from home;
Lower disciplinary points total (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card).
Position in the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League access list.
In order to rank teams in League D, which is composed of different sized groups, the results against the fourth-placed team in Group D1 are not taken into account for the purposes of comparing teams placed first, second and third in their respective groups.
The ranking of the top 4 teams in League A are determined by their finish in the Nations League Finals.
Criteria for overall ranking
The overall UEFA Nations League rankings are established as follows:
The 16 League A teams are ranked 1st to 16th according to their league rankings.
The 16 League B teams are ranked 17th to 32nd according to their league rankings.
The 16 League C teams are ranked 33rd to 48th according to their league rankings.
The 7 League D teams are ranked 49th to 55th according to their league rankings.
Schedule
Below is the schedule of the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League.
Due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar taking place at the end of the year, the league phase will be played in June and September 2022.
The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 17 December 2021, the day following the draw.
The relegation play-outs of League C are scheduled on the same dates as the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs.
If one or more of the teams due to participate in the relegation play-outs also qualifies for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs, the relegation play-outs will be cancelled and the teams in League C ranked 47th and 48th in the Nations League overall ranking will be automatically relegated.
Seeding
thumb|375px|Map showing the leagues each national team will participate in.
All 55 UEFA national teams will enter the competition.
The teams which finished bottom of their group in Leagues A and B, as well as the losers from the relegation play-outs of League C, from the 2020–21 season will move down a league, while the group winners of Leagues B, C and D will move up.
The remaining teams will stay in their respective leagues.
In the 2022–23 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2020–21 Nations League overall ranking, with a slight modification: teams that were relegated in the previous season were ranked immediately below those who were promoted.
The seeding pots for the league phase were based on the access list ranking.
The seeding pots, draw procedure and fixture list procedures were confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Chișinău, Moldova, on 22 September 2021.
Key
The draw for the league phase took place at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on 16 December 2021, 18:00 CET.
The draw, originally planned to take place in Montreux, was held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the league phase will be played in June and September 2022, no winter venue restrictions will be applied in the draw.
For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine) could not be drawn in the same group.
Due to restrictions of excessive travel, any group could contain a maximum of one of the following pairs: Andorra and Kazakhstan, Malta and Kazakhstan, Northern Ireland and Kazakhstan, Gibraltar and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iceland, Israel and Iceland.
League A
Group A1
Group A2
Group A3
Group A4
Nations League Finals
Bracket
Semi-finals
---- Third-place play-off
Final
League B
Group B1
Group B2
Group B3
Group B4
League C
Group C1
Group C2
Group C3
Group C4
Relegation play-outs
League D
Group D1
Group D2
Overall ranking
The results of each team are used to calculate the overall ranking of the competition.
References
External links
2022-23 Nations League Nations League Category:June 2022 sports events in Europe Category:September 2022 sports events in Europe Category:June 2023 sports events in Europe Category:March 2024 sports events in Europe Category:Scheduled association football competitions
