UEFA Nations League explained

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A heavyweight showdown in Munich between the last two World Cup winners, France and Germany, sets the ball rolling on Thursday as the inaugural UEFA Nations League gets underway.

The new tournament sees the 55 European national teams split into four divisions, taking promotion and relegation to international football while also offering an alternative route to the 2020 European Championship, without replacing the qualifiers themselves.

AFP Sport tells you everything you need to know about the competition:

FEWER MEANINGLESS FRIENDLIES

When Germany last hosted France, in a friendly last November, the number of emtpy seats in Cologne was striking and suggested that the appetite for such games was waning.

Meanwhile, smaller nations find it difficult to arrange friendly games, so UEFA believe they have come up with the perfect solution.

They are using their own coefficient to split their 55 member nations into four leagues, with the top 12 sides all in League A. The next 12 are in League B, followed by 15 in League C and the bottom 16 in League D.

 

FINAL FOUR

The winners of the four groups in League A will go through to the finals from Jun 5-9 next year. Semi-finals, a third-place play-off and a final will all be played, with the host country to be decided in December from among the finalist teams.

So there is a title and a trophy up for grabs, but also promotion and relegation with future Nations Leagues in mind.

EURO 2020 PLACES UP FOR GRABS

There will still be qualifiers for the 24-team Euro 2020. They will take place from March to November 2019, with a draw to be held this coming December.

However, that will no longer be the only means of qualifying for that competition.

Each of the four leagues (A, B, C and D) will hold playoffs which will take place in March 2020 and which will be contested by the respective group winners, with semi-finals and a final being played.

However, if a group winner has already qualified via the classic route, then their spot will go to the next best-ranked team in their league. And if a league does not have four teams to compete, the remaining slots are allocated to teams from another league.

All of which means that one place at Euro 2020 will go to a team from League D, comprised of the continent’s traditional minnows.

Meanwhile, teams will still be free to play friendly matches when the opportunity arises, hence why Scotland and Belgium meet in Glasgow this Friday, for example.

UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE DRAW

League A

Group 1: Germany, France, Netherlands

Group 2: Belgium, Iceland, Switzerland

Group 3: Italy, Poland, Portugal

Group 4: Croatia, England, Spain

League B

Group 1: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine

Group 2: Russia, Sweden, Turkey

Group 3: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland

Group 4: Denmark, Republic of Ireland, Wales

League C

Group 1: Albania, Israel, Scotland

Group 2: Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary

Group 3: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Norway, Slovenia

Group 4: Lithuania, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia

League D

Group 1: Andorra, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia

Group 2: Belarus, Luxembourg, Moldova, San Marino

Group 3: Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands, Kosovo, Malta

Group 4: Armenia, Macedonia, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein