The new formats will be used from September 2024, i.e. for the 2024-2025 football season. The Nations League will be expanded with an extra knockout round, while the European and World Cup qualifications will be more compact.
In the A-liga of the Nations League, the group winners and runners-up will now play quarter-finals (back and forth) for a place in the Final Four.
That will happen in March, bridging the gap between the group stage, which ends at the end of November, and the Final Four in June. In the past, the 4 group winners from September qualified for the Final Four.
The countries that finish third in the A league and the runners-up of the B league play play-offs for promotion or retention, as do the numbers three in the B league and the runners-up of the C -league.
In the European qualifiers there will be 12 groups of 5 or 4 countries (instead of 10 groups of 6 or 5). Qualifications will start in March for most countries in a group of 5. The countries that are then active in the Nations League will start in June. Countries that are drawn in a group of 4 will play their first match in September.
The twelve group winners qualify for the final round. The countries that finish in second place are either directly qualified or still have to play play-offs (with countries from the Nations League for the European Championship).
The UEFA board also decided to host the European Super Cup in Athens in 2023. Initially, the Russian city of Kazan was designated as the host city. The reason is, of course, the war that Russia is waging against Ukraine.
The meeting between the Champions League and the Europa League winner will be played on Wednesday, August 16 at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in the Greek capital.
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