New format in 2028 for the Nations League and the European qualifiers: the Champions League model is taken over

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The League of Nations and the preliminaries in the European zone will be held from 2028 according to new methods, similar to the formula of the current Champions League, it was promised on Wednesday Uefainforms AFP.

Established in 2018 and contested over two years, the Nations League will move from the current four leagues to three leagues of 18 teams, announced the body’s Executive Committee, meeting in Istanbul, which still needs to “refine” its plan before a final adoption in September.

In the mini-championshipthe only one to be revised, each league will consist of three groups of six teams, who will face four opponents in a single match and one in a home and away format, that is six matches: ‘Home or away against teams from other urns, home and away against opponents from the same urn’.

“The format will end as it currently does, with quarter-finals, a four-team final and promotion/relegation play-offs,” he said Uefa.

In addition, European Championship and World Cup qualification will be structured into “two championships per division”, linked to the Nations League: League 1 will bring together the 36 teams from Leagues A and B of the Nations League, and League 2 the remaining 18 teams – or 19 in the case of the reinstatement of the Russians, banned from 2022.

League 1 it will consist of three groups of twelve teams each, drawn from three groups, and each team will play six matches against six different opponents, “two per urn”, following the same model as the European interclub competitions.

League 2 will be organized in the same way as League C of the Nations League, with three groups.

In order to reach the final stages of the European Championship and the World Cup, “the best-placed teams from each group in League 1 will qualify directly”, with the remaining places going through accessible play-offs in League 2.

“The new formats will improve the balance of competitions, reduce the number of irrelevant matches and provide more attractiveness and dynamism for SUPPORTERSwhile ensuring a fair chance of qualification for all teams without adding extra dates to the international calendar,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin was quoted as saying in a statement.