What is the UEFA Women's Nations League? Fixtures, results, groups & how it works

The draw for the 2023-24 UEFA Women's Nations League took place on Tuesday, May 2, 2023.

It was held at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, and began at 12pm BST, which was 1pm local time.

The draw was streamed live on UEFA's official website.

The UEFA Women's Nations League will begin with a league stage, with UEFA to split its member associations into three leagues (A-C) based on the latest coefficient rankings. Within these leagues, teams will play in groups of three or four teams on a home and away basis.

The standings at the end of the league stage will determine promotion and relegation between the tiers, as well as qualification for the Women's Nations League finals.

The four group winners in League A will contest the Women's Nations League finals. There will be two single-leg semi-finals, a third-place match and a final.

The group winners in Leagues B and C will be promoted. The teams who finish bottom of the groups in Leagues A and B will be relegated, as will the lowest-ranked third-placed team in League B.

Promotion and relegation matches will also be played between the teams that finish third in each group in League A and the teams who finish second in each group in League B. These will be two-legged ties, with the winners to earn a place in League A.

Minus the aforementioned third-placed League B team that will be automatically relegated, the third placed teams in League B will also face the three best second placed teams in League C for spots in League B.

After those games are all complete, the promotions and relegations will be reflected in the leagues for the European qualifying stage.

Following this, the Women's Nations League will enter its qualification process for the 2025 Women's Euros, for which England will be the defending champions.

Another league stage will take place, with each team playing the others home and away. The four group winners and four runners-up from League A will qualify directly for the final tournament. Two rounds of two-legged play-off ties will then determine the remaining qualifiers.

The teams that finish third and fourth in the groups in League A will enter the first play-off round via path one, which will see them play the five League C group winners and the three best second-placed teams. The eight winners of these ties will progress to round two.

Path two of the play-offs will see the four group winners and two best runners-up in League B take on the two remaining runners-up and the four third-placed teams from the same league. The six winners of those ties progress to round two.

There, the 14 teams will be drawn into seven ties and the winners of those will qualify for the 2025 Women's Euros.

No promotion and relegation matches will be played at the end of this stage, but there will be automatic promotion and relegation between the leagues, which will be reflected in the next edition of the Women's Nations League.

That will take place across the 2025-26 season and will decide which European teams qualify for the 2027 Women's World Cup. That qualifying process will be played in the exact same format as this, although it will feature an adjusted pathway due to a fewer number of qualifying slots available for the global tournament.

The 2023-24 Women's Nations League will kick off in September 2023, with the first two rounds of games taking place that month. There will then be two matchdays in October and one across the end of November and beginning of December, before the final matchday is played a few days later.

The qualifiers for the Euros will start in spring 2024, following the conclusion of the Women's Nations League.

League A features the top 16 ranked teams in Europe and they are divided into four groups of four. Among them are England, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and France.

You can see the breakdown of League A below, including the full list of fixtures.

Group 1 table

Group 1 fixtures

Group 2 table

Group 2 fixtures

Group 3 table

Group 3 fixtures

Group 4 table

Group 4 fixtures

League B is made up by the teams ranked from 17 to 32 and, like League A, they are divided into four groups of four. Some of the teams involved at this tier include the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Serbia and Finland.

You can see the breakdown of League B below, including the full list of fixtures.

Group 1

Group 1 fixtures

Group 2

Group 2 fixtures

Group 3

Group 3 fixtures

Group 4

Group 4 fixtures

League C features the next ranked 19 teams, with them split up into four groups of four and one group of three. This tier includes nations such as Malta, Turkey, Montenegro and Bulgaria.

You can see the breakdown of League C below, including the full list of fixtures.

Group 1

Group 1 fixtures

Group 2

Group 2 fixtures

Group 3

Group 3 fixtures

Group 4

Group 4 fixtures

Group 5

Group 5 fixtures

The Women's Nations League finals will also decide which European nations will compete at the Olympic women's football tournament.

In 2021, Sweden were the best performing European team at the delayed Games in Japan, winning the silver medal after losing to Canada on penalties in the gold medal match.

The top two eligible teams in the 2023-24 Nations League finals will qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics. This excludes France, which will host the Games and therefore qualify automatically.

This reward will be up for grabs in the inaugural edition of the Women's Nations League but also every four years. The next instance will be in the 2027-28 season, with spots in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles up for grabs then.