The 2026–27 UEFA Nations League A is the top division of the 2026–27 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the fifth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA. League A began with the league phase in September 2026, and will culminate with the Nations League Finals in June 2027 to determine the champions of the competition.
Portugal are the defending champions, having won the 2025 finals.
Format League A consists of the 16 top-ranked UEFA members from the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League final overall ranking, split into four groups of four. Each team will play six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on matchdays in September, October and November 2026.
Following the league phase, the top two teams of each group will advance to the quarter-finals, played home-and-away over two legs in March 2027. In each tie, group winners will face a runner-up from a different group, with the group winner hosting the second leg. The four quarter-final winners will advance to the 2027 UEFA Nations League Finals. The two worst last-placed teams of each group will be relegated directly to League B, while the two best last-placed teams and two worst third-placed teams will compete against the runners-up of League B to either retain their place in League A for the next season, or face relegation to 2028–29 UEFA Nations League B. The relegation play-offs will be played home-and-away over two legs in March 2027, with the League A teams hosting the second leg. In all two-legged ties, the team that scores more goals on aggregate is the winner. If the aggregate score is level, extra time will be played without the away goals rule. If the score remains level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out will be used to decide the winner.
Originally, the format for promotion and relegation would have involved all last-placed teams in League A being relegated. The promotion/relegation play-offs would have concerned all third-placed teams in League A and all runners-up in League B. However, due to the changes scheduled for the 2028–29 UEFA Nations League, in which the competition will be reduced from four leagues to three leagues of 18 teams, promotion/relegation was rebalanced to make all three upcoming leagues be at 18 teams.
The Nations League Finals will be played in a knockout format in June 2027, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off and final. The semi-final pairings will be determined using an open draw. The host country will be selected by the UEFA Executive Committee, preferably hosted by one of the participating teams, with the winners of the final crowned as the champions of the UEFA Nations League.
Teams League A includes sixteen teams based on the results of the 2024–25 season: the top eight teams (group winners and runners-up) from League A, the four winners of the League A/B play-offs and the four group winners from League B.
Team changes The following were the team changes in League A from the 2024–25 season:
+ Incoming Promoted fromNations League B + Outgoing Relegated toNations League B
Seeding The teams were seeded for the league phase based on the 2024–25 Nations League final overall ranking, considering promotion and relegation between the leagues and the results of the League A knockout stage.
+ Pot 1 Team () 1 2 3 4+ Pot 2 Team 5 6 7 8+ Pot 3 Team 9 10 11 12+ Pot 4 Team 13 14 15 16
The draw for the league phase took place in Brussels, Belgium, on 12 February 2026, 18:00 CET. Groups were drawn to contain one team from each pot.
Groups The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 13 February 2026, the day following the draw.
Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Ranking of third-placed teams
Ranking of fourth-placed teams
Knockout stage
Bracket
Quarter-finals
The draw for the quarter-finals will be held after the completion of the league phase. In the draw, teams from the same group cannot be drawn against each other.
Seeding The group winners will be seeded in the draw, while the runners-up will be unseeded.
+ Quarter-final draw pots Group Winners(seeded in Pot 1) Runners-up(unseeded in Pot 2) Qualified(position TBD) A1 A2 A3 A4
Summary
The first legs will be played on 25–27 March, and the second legs will be played on 28–30 March 2027.
Matches Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Nations League Finals
The host of the Nations League Finals will preferably be selected from the four qualified teams. The semi-finals pairings will be determined by means of an open draw. For scheduling purposes, the host team will be allocated to semi-final 1 as the administrative home team.
Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA.
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Goalscorers
Overall ranking Following the league phase, the 16 League A teams will be ordered 1st to 16th in an interim overall ranking for the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules: The teams finishing first in the groups will be ranked 1st to 4th according to the results of the league phase. The teams finishing second in the groups will be ranked 5th to 8th according to the results of the league phase. The teams finishing third in the groups will be ranked 9th to 12th according to the results of the league phase. The teams finishing fourth in the groups will be ranked 13th to 16th according to the results of the league phase.
A final overall ranking will also be compiled, though this is only used to rank teams within their new leagues for the following edition of the competition.
Notes
References
External links