UEFA Nations League Promotion and Relegation Rules 2026/27: Why This Season Is Different

If the Nations League tables look unusually unforgiving this autumn, there is a good reason. The 2026/27 competition is not simply another edition of UEFA's youngest national-team tournament: it is a transition season designed to dismantle the current four-league structure and prepare for a completely different format from 2028/29.

League D will disappear after this campaign. Leagues A, B and C will all contain 18 teams in the next edition, which means UEFA has had to rewrite the usual promotion and relegation rules. Some third-placed teams in League A will suddenly face a play-off, finishing fourth will no longer automatically mean relegation for everyone, and every country currently in League D is guaranteed promotion regardless of its results. UEFA approved the changes on September 15, just days before the new league phase begins.

The result is a one-off system that looks complicated at first sight but makes sense once the purpose is clear: UEFA needs to turn the current 16-team Leagues A, B and C into three divisions of 18 without simply moving large numbers of nations by administrative decision.

This is the final Nations League with four divisions

The 2026/27 Nations League still begins in the familiar format. Leagues A, B and C each contain four groups of four countries, while League D has two groups of three. Teams in the first three divisions play six group matches, home and away against each opponent; League D teams play four. Three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw, just as in a normal domestic league.

The league phase starts on September 24 and runs until November 17. The opening international window is unusually concentrated, with most countries playing four Nations League matches between September 24 and October 6 before returning for the final two games in November. The League A quarter-finals and the main promotion/relegation play-offs follow in March 2027.

What happens after those matches is where 2026/27 becomes different. UEFA has already approved a new Nations League structure for 2028/29 consisting of only three leagues of 18 teams each. League D therefore has to be absorbed into the divisions above, while League A and League B must also grow from 16 to 18 teams.

The easiest way to understand the transition is this:

League A: even third place can now bring danger

At the top of the competition, the sporting objective has not changed for the strongest nations. The winners and runners-up of the four League A groups advance to the quarter-finals, where the group winners are seeded against runners-up from different sections. Those ties are played over two legs in March 2027, with the four winners advancing to the Nations League finals in June.

The unusual part begins below them. Normally, finishing third would largely be viewed as a successful escape from relegation trouble. This season that is only true for the two best third-placed teams across the four League A groups. They remain in League A automatically, while the other two third-placed sides must enter a promotion/relegation play-off.

Fourth place is also split in two. The two best-ranked teams finishing bottom of their groups still receive another chance through the play-offs, while the two lowest-ranked fourth-placed sides are relegated automatically to League B. Those four endangered League A teams — two third-placed and two fourth-placed — face the four League B runners-up.

That makes the overall League A ranking unusually important. It is no longer enough simply to say that a country finished third or fourth in its individual group; its record must also be compared with teams finishing in the same position elsewhere.

League B has four automatic promotion places

League B is more straightforward at the top. Each of its four group winners is promoted automatically to League A, which immediately supplies four of the extra teams required to expand the top division to 18 countries.

The runners-up are not automatically promoted. Instead, all four enter the League A/B play-offs, where each is drawn against one of the four League A sides fighting to retain its status. The winner of each tie plays in League A in 2028/29 and the loser goes into League B.

Finishing third is completely safe: those four countries remain in League B. The fourth-placed teams, however, no longer drop automatically into League C. Each gets a play-off against a runner-up from League C, again with the winner taking a League B place for the next edition.

This is one of the consequences of expanding League B from 16 teams to 18. UEFA cannot simply relegate all four bottom teams while simultaneously trying to increase the size of the division, so the usual automatic drop has been replaced by a second chance.

League C is where the transition becomes most obvious

The League C group winners still earn the traditional reward: each is promoted directly to League B. The four runners-up enter the League B/C play-offs against the four countries that finish bottom of their League B groups.

But there is effectively no relegation from League C this season. Countries finishing third or fourth stay in the division.

Under normal circumstances, teams at the bottom of League C would be worrying about dropping into League D. That mechanism is unnecessary because League D itself will no longer exist when the competition returns in 2028/29. UEFA instead needs to build an 18-team League C, so the existing League C sides that do not go up are retained and the six League D teams are brought into the division.

That creates one of the strangest competitive situations in Nations League history: a country can finish last in its League C group in 2026/27 and still know it will remain at the same level for the next edition.

League D: everybody is promoted

For Gibraltar, Malta, Andorra, Lithuania, Azerbaijan and Liechtenstein, promotion is already guaranteed before a ball has been kicked. All six League D nations will move into League C for 2028/29, regardless of where they finish in their groups.

That does not make their matches meaningless. League D results still determine the group standings and the overall Nations League ranking, and those rankings can have consequences beyond promotion. The 2026/27 competition also feeds into the qualification system for Euro 2028, where Nations League performance can provide access to the play-offs for countries that fail to qualify through the conventional route.

But in purely promotion terms, there is nothing for a League D nation to lose. This is the final campaign at that level, and all six members will be part of the enlarged League C when the Nations League returns.

Why UEFA needed such an unusual system

The numbers explain most of it.

Leagues A, B and C currently contain 16 teams each. From 2028/29, they need 18 each. League D currently contains six teams and is being removed entirely. Those six countries therefore provide the extra two teams needed in each of the three remaining divisions — but UEFA still wants sporting results to determine as much of the final allocation as possible.

The promotion and relegation system is designed around reaching that 18-18-18 split. Four League B champions go directly into League A, two League A teams fall directly into League B, and the play-offs settle four further borderline places. A similar process between Leagues B and C eventually leaves all three divisions with the required number of teams. The six League D nations complete the redistribution by moving into League C.

It is therefore better to think of 2026/27 not as a normal promotion/relegation season with a few amendments, but as a bridge between two completely different versions of the Nations League.

What will the Nations League look like from 2028/29?

The change goes far beyond removing League D. UEFA's new format will put 18 nations in each of Leagues A, B and C, divided into three groups of six rather than four groups of four.

Each country will still play six league matches, but it will no longer face every group opponent both home and away. Teams will meet five different opponents: one fixture against countries from different seeding pots and home-and-away matches against the nation drawn from the same pot.

That means the familiar miniature round-robin format used since the Nations League began will disappear. The competition will become broader, with more opponents and fewer repeat fixtures, while still retaining promotion and relegation between the three levels.

The changes are part of a wider UEFA overhaul of men's national-team football after Euro 2028, including a new structure for European qualifying.

The Nations League can still affect Euro 2028 qualification

There is another reason not to dismiss the 2026/27 tables as merely a reshuffling exercise. Nations League results are built into the Euro 2028 qualifying play-off system.

Under UEFA's Euro 2028 regulations, several play-off places will be reserved for Nations League group winners from Leagues A, B and C that have not already qualified for the tournament or secured a play-off place through normal qualifying. If additional teams are required, the highest-ranked League D group winner can also enter the allocation process, followed by other teams according to the overall Nations League ranking.

So even teams already safe from relegation have an incentive to win their sections and finish as high as possible. The Nations League may ultimately provide a second route to Euro 2028 for countries that struggle in the main qualifying campaign.

What happens when teams finish level on points?

Despite all the structural changes, the basic group tiebreakers remain familiar. If two or more countries finish level on points, UEFA first looks at their head-to-head record, beginning with points earned in the matches between the tied teams, then head-to-head goal difference and goals scored.

If those criteria cannot separate them, UEFA moves to overall group goal difference, goals scored, away goals, victories and away victories before disciplinary record and the Nations League access list are considered.

That distinction may become especially important in League A, where the competition is no longer simply about finishing above one direct rival. Third- and fourth-placed teams also need strong enough overall records to compare favourably with countries finishing in the same position in other groups.

The simplest way to remember the 2026/27 rules

The top end of the Nations League still works much as supporters expect: win a League B or C group and you go up; finish in the top two of League A and you fight for the trophy. Everything around the bottom of the divisions is different because UEFA is preparing to abolish League D.

League A sends only two countries straight down. League B sends nobody straight into League C. League C has no relegation at all. Every League D nation goes up.

The remainder is settled through play-offs, with teams around the boundaries of League A/B and League B/C effectively fighting for their place in UEFA's new three-tier system.

That makes 2026/27 a one-off Nations League season. The competition starting on September 24 may look familiar on the fixture list, but by the time promotion and relegation are settled, the four-division structure used since 2018 will effectively have been dismantled.

Published by Patrick Jane
19.09.2026