The 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Women's Nations League, an international women's football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of UEFA. The league phase of the competition was played between September and December 2023, with the finals tournament taking place in February 2024. The results also determined the leagues for the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying competition, and which two teams (in addition to hosts France) qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Format The competition began with the league stage, featuring the national teams split into three leagues (A, B, and C) based on their UEFA Women's national team coefficient. Leagues A and B featured 16 teams in four groups of four teams, while League C consisted of the remaining competition entrants split into groups of three or four teams.
The teams in each group played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The four group winners of League A advanced to the Nations League Finals, which featured single-leg semi-finals, a third-place play-off, and final. An open draw determined the pairings and home teams for the semi-final matches, as well as which semi-final will have its teams host the third-place play-off and final. The two best-ranked teams in the Nations League Finals (excluding France) qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
In addition, the competition featured promotion and relegation, taking effect in UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying (which uses an identical league structure). The group winners of Leagues B and C were automatically promoted, while the fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B, as well as the lowest-ranked third-placed team in League B, were automatically relegated. Promotion/relegation matches were also held on a home-and-away basis, taking place in parallel with the Nations League Finals, to determine which teams would be promoted, relegated or remain in their respective leagues. The third-placed teams of League A played the runners-up of League B, while the three best-ranked third-placed teams in League B played the three best-ranked League C runners-up. The teams from the higher leagues were seeded, and played the second leg at home. In the two-legged ties, the team that scored more goals on aggregate was the winner. If the aggregate score was level, extra time was played (the away goals rule was not applied). If the score remained level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was 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 UEFA Women's national team coefficient ranking. 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 UEFA Women's national team coefficient ranking.
To rank teams in League C, which may be composed of different-sized groups, the results against the fourth-placed teams in these leagues are not taken into account to compare teams placed first, second, and third in their respective groups.
The ranking of the top four teams in League A is 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 League C teams are ranked 33rd onwards according to their league rankings.
Schedule The competition was played from September 2023 to February 2024. It began with the league phase and ended with the Nations League Finals and promotion/relegation matches played in parallel. Below is the schedule of the 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League.
Stage Round Match dates League phase Matchday 1 21–22 September 2023 Matchday 2 26 September 2023 Matchday 3 26–27 October 2023 Matchday 4 31 October 2023 Matchday 5 30 November – 1 December 2023 Matchday 6 5 December 2023 Finals Semi-finals 23 February 2024 Third-place play-off 28 February 2024 Final Promotion/relegation matches First leg 23 February 2024 Second leg 27–28 February 2024
Seeding
All 55 UEFA national teams were able to submit an entry for the competition by 23 March 2023 at the latest, which also acted as entry for UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying. In total, 51 teams entered the competition. Russia were not permitted to enter the competition, as Russian teams were suspended indefinitely from UEFA and FIFA competitions since 28 February 2022 due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.
In addition, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein and San Marino did not submit an entry, which meant that they could not qualify for UEFA Women's Euro 2025.
The draw for the league phase took place on 2 May 2023, 13:00 CEST, at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland. Teams were split into leagues based on their UEFA Women's national team coefficient ranking. Teams were divided into four pots of four in Leagues A and B, and three pots of five and one pot of 4 in League C. For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan (due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict), as well as Belarus and Ukraine (due to the Belarusian involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine), could not be drawn in the same group. Due to winter venue restrictions, a group could contain a maximum of two of Sweden, Norway, and Iceland in League A, and two of Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Latvia, and Lithuania in League C. Due to excessive travel restrictions, only one of Andorra, the Faroe Islands, and Malta could be drawn with Kazakhstan.
+ League A Pot Team 1 46,178 1 43,043 2 42,584 3 40,823 4 2 40,472 5 39,910 6 38,715 7 37,535 8 3 36,455 9 34,794 10 33,963 11 33,348 12 4 33,101 13 29,942 15 29,744 16 29,335 17+ League B Pot Team 1 28,877 18 28,458 19 27,508 20 26,757 21 2 26,517 22 26,445 23 25,711 24 24,877 25 3 24,359 26 23,091 27 19,213 28 18,552 29 4 17,556 30 17,523 31 16,890 32 16,826 33+ League C Pot Team 1 16,021 34 15,543 35 14,876 36 14,865 37 14,483 38 2 14,226 39 12,668 40 12,051 41 9,750 42 9,654 43 3 9,649 44 8,662 45 8,543 46 8,200 47 8,032 48 4 7,020 49 6,977 50 6,500 51 1,958 52
+ Did not enter Team 0 — 0 — 0 —+ Banned from entering the competition Team 32,203 14
League A
Group A1
Group A2
Group A3
Group A4
Nations League Finals
The pairings and home teams were determined via an open draw on 11 December 2023.
Bracket
Semi-finals
Third-place play-off Because France, who qualified automatically as hosts of the Olympics reached the final, the third place playoff determined the second team to qualify for the Olympics alongside Spain.
Final
League B
Group B1
Group B2
Group B3
Group B4
Ranking of third-placed teams
League C
Group C1
Group C2
Group C3
Group C4
Group C5
Ranking of second-placed teams
Due to differing group sizes in League C, results against fourth-placed teams were disregarded when ranking second-placed teams.
Promotion/relegation matches
The pairings for the promotion/relegation matches were determined using a draw on 11 December 2023.
League A vs League B
League B vs League C
Overall ranking The results of each team's league rankings were used to calculate the overall ranking of the competition, using the ranking criteria, and were used for seeding in the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying draw.
+ Key League A League B League C
References
External links