2024–25 UEFA Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs
Tournament details
Dates
League A/B and B/C play-offs: 20–23 March 2025 League C/D play-offs: 26–31 March 2026
Teams
20
2026–27 →
International football competition
The 2024–25 UEFA Nations League promotion/relegation play-offs will be the promotion and relegation play-offs of the 2024–25 season of the UEFA Nations League, the fourth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA. The play-offs, newly added for this season, will determine some of the teams that will be promoted, relegated or remain in their respective leagues for the 2026–27 season.
On 25 January 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee confirmed an altered format for the 2024–25 Nations League, including the addition of the promotion/relegation play-offs.[1][2] In addition to the automatic promotion and relegation decided by the league phase, the promotion/relegation play-offs will determine the final composition of the leagues for the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League.[3] The matches will be played home-and-away over two legs. If the team from the higher league is the winner, both teams will remain in their respective leagues, whereas if the team from the lower league wins, they will be promoted to the higher league, with the losers relegated to the lower league.[4]
The match-ups in the promotion/relegation play-offs are as follows:[5]
The third-placed teams of League A will face the runners-up of League B (four ties in March 2025).
The third-placed teams of League B will face the runners-up of League C (four ties in March 2025).
If any of the teams due to participate in the League C/D play-offs qualifies for the second round (play-offs) of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification in March 2026, the League C/D play-offs will not be played, and all teams will remain in their respective leagues.
The teams from the higher leagues will be seeded, and will play the second leg at home. In the two-legged ties, the team that scores more goals on aggregate is the winner. 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.[6]
The draw for the promotion/relegation play-offs will be held on 22 November 2024, 12:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, along with the draw for the League A quarter-finals and semi-finals.[5][7] In the draw, the teams from the higher leagues will be seeded and drawn to host the second leg, while the teams from the lower leagues will be unseeded and drawn to host the first leg. First, all teams from the unseeded pot will be drawn into pairings in order (from pairing 1–4 for A/B and B/C, and pairing 1–2 for C/D), after which teams from the seeded pot will be drawn into the pairings (in numerical order) as their opponents.[8]
For political reasons, Belarus and Ukraine cannot be drawn against each other, should they both qualify for the League B/C play-offs.[7]
The League A/B and B/C play-off matches are scheduled for 20 and 23 March 2025. To ensure enough teams are available for the March 2025 window of World Cup qualifying, the League C/D play-off matches are scheduled for 26 and 31 March 2026.[4] However, if any team scheduled for the League C/D play-offs qualified for the UEFA play-offs then the League C/D play-offs would be canceled and the teams would remain in the same leagues.[6][9]
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Ukraine
Georgia
Greece
Republic of Ireland
Austria
Slovenia
Turkey
Iceland
Slovakia
Kosovo
Bulgaria
Luxembourg
Armenia
Latvia
