In the last few days, I’ve seen some confusion around how the qualification now works. It used to be simpler, with just group stages, some teams qualifying directly, and some going to the play-offs.

However, with the UEFA Nations League (UNL), things changed. We start by here. This competition has 4 leagues: A, B, C, D. These are ranked, meaning the better teams are at A, and the worst are at D. The A, B & C leagues have 4 groups of 4, and D has only 2 groups (one with 4 teams, the other with 3).

Every league in the UNL is ranked. For example, the 16 teams in League A are ranked 1-16. The four group winners are ranked 1-4, the second placed teams are ranked 5-8, the third placed teams are ranked 9-12, the fourth ranked teams are ranked 13-16.

With this in mind, let’s move to the Euro qualifiers. 7 groups of 5 teams, 3 groups of 6 teams. The first two of each group are qualified. So, 10 groups, top two teams qualify. Plus Germany (the hosts), we have 21 qualified teams already. Easy enough.

There are three missing, and here enters the UNL. The thing to retain is, before the Euro qualifiers even start, 12 teams have assured places in the play-offs. The four group winners of League A, League B, League C. However, if they qualify through the regular qualifiers, they relinquish that spot to some other team in their league who has not yet qualified.

The rule is, basically, the 4 best non-qualified teams of UNL Leagues A, B & C go to the play-offs. Using concrete examples, these are the current teams going to the play-offs:

As you might notice, League A has only 3 teams in the play-off. This is simply because all other teams are in direct qualification positions. So, to fill this gap, the best League D group winner is selected (this year, Estonia). Easy to understand.

Now, what happens if there are less than three teams from a league available for the play-off? Besides getting the best League D team, we go for the best team not yet qualified, regardless of the League. So, let’s say the Netherlands get into a direct qualification spot. To fill it, we would go to Iceland, ranked 7th in League B. If both the Netherlands and Croatia qualify, we would also get Norway, ranked 8th in League B.

This is the basics of it. The twelve teams that are qualified to the play-off are split into 3 different paths, one for each League A, B & C. The format is 1st vs. 4th, 2nd vs. 3rd, with the winners meting in a final, the winner of that match qualifying. Using the example of League C, right now that play-off path would be: Georgia vs. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan vs. Luxembourg. This is how we get the three last teams.

There is just one more caveat. As you’ve seen, some teams from League B might have to play in “Path A”. These teams are not necessarily the worst ranked in League B (in the scenario mentioned above, Iceland and Norway). The rule is, only group winners are locked in their league paths (so, in the mentioned scenario, Israel and Bosnia). The non-group winners are put in a draw, with some filling the spots in the League A path, and the other staying in the league B path. Again with the scenario above, two of Finland, Ukraine, Iceland and Norway would play in the League A path, and two in the League B path. The best group D winner always plays in the League A path.

For better understanding, check the Wikipedia page, especially [the part with the UNL rankings] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying_play-offs#Teams_selected). It’s really cool. Seeing how it worked in 2020 is also cool, although it had a slightly different process (League D had a path of his own). In that year, League A had one team not directly qualified, League B had four, League C had many. So three teams from League C went to play on path A.

I hope I was clear. Thank you!