The UEFA Executive Committee, which includes Andriy Pavelko, president of the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF), on January 25 in Nyon, Switzerland ratifiedseveral important decisions, including new formats for the Nations League and qualification for European and World Championships for men's national teams.

The Nations League will be expanded with a new playoff round in March, creating a sequence between the group stage, which ends in November, and the final tournament that takes place in June.

Winners of Group A and teams finishing second will participate in quarter-final home-and-away matches, with winners qualifying for the four-team finals.

Teams finishing third in Group A, second and third – in League B, and second – in League C, will play a promotion/relegation playoff (home and away according to the A3-B2, B3-C2 format).

What does the new format mean for Ukraine?

As known, based on the results of the 2022/2023 Nations League, the Ukrainian national team, finishing second in its group, remained in League B.

The date for the draw of the next cycle of the Nations League, 2024/2025, will be announced later by UEFA, but dates for matches in autumn 2024 are already known: two windows each – from September 2 to 10, October 7 to 15, and November 11 to 19.

After the format change, a participant of the group stage in League B, where Ukraine will play, if finishing:

• first place – will rise to League A;
• second place – will play against a team finishing third in Group A;
• third place – will play against a team finishing second in Group C;
• fourth place – will drop to League C.

Playoff matches are scheduled for March 2025.

The group, with four or five teams, that the participants of the Nations League-2024/2025 will enter into the World Cup qualification depends on their places in the Nations League.

Teams divided into groups of five for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers will start the tournament in March or June 2025, if they still participate in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals or promotion/relegation matches. Teams divided into four-member groups will begin qualification for the World Cup in September 2025.

Photo uefa.com

Looking forward to Euro-2024 qualifiers

As a reminder, the next competition for Ukraine's national team will be the Euro 2024 qualifying tournament. The first match of the blue-and-yellow team against England is scheduled for Sunday, March 26 at Wembley Stadium in London. Kick-off time – 17:00 local time (19:00 Kyiv time). This will be a second round game as Ukraine skipped the first one on March 23 when Italy hosts England and North Macedonia plays Malta.

Two best teams from each of ten groups will secure spots in the final tournament featuring 24 teams, with Germany already confirmed. The fate of three additional slots will be decided in Nations League playoffs scheduled for March 2024.