2025–26 UEFA Women's Nations League

2025–26 UEFA Women's Nations League
Tournament details
Dates	League phase:; February – October 2025; Nations League Finals and; promotion/relegation matches; February – March 2026
Teams	51
Tournament statistics
Goals scored	0
Attendance	0
	← 2023–24 2027–28 →

The 2025–26 UEFA Women's Nations League will be the second season of the UEFA Women's Nations League, an international women's football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the member associations of UEFA. The league phase of the competition will be played between February and October 2025, with the finals tournament taking place in February 2026. The results also determine the leagues for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 qualifying competition.

Format

The competition will begin with the league stage, featuring the national teams split into three leagues (A, B, and C) based on the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying ranking.^[1] Leagues A and B feature 16 teams in four groups of four teams, while League C consists of the remaining competition entrants split into groups of three or four teams.

The teams in each group play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The four group winners of League A advance to the Nations League Finals, which feature single-leg semi-finals, a third-place play-off, and final. An open draw determines the pairings and home teams for the semi-final matches, as well as which semi-final will have its teams host the third-place play-off and final.

In addition, the competition features promotion and relegation, taking effect in FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 qualifying (which uses an identical league structure). The group winners of Leagues B and C are automatically promoted, while the fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B, as well as the lowest-ranked third-placed team in League B, are automatically relegated. Promotion/relegation play-offs will also be held on a home-and-away basis, taking place in parallel with the Nations League Finals, to determine which of the other teams will be promoted, relegated or remain in their respective leagues. The third-placed teams of League A play the runners-up of League B, while the three best-ranked third-placed teams in League B play the three best-ranked League C runners-up.^[2] The teams from the higher leagues are seeded, and play the second leg at home. In the two-legged ties, the team that score more goals on aggregate is the winner. If the aggregate score is level, extra time will be played (the away goals rule will not apply). If the score remains level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out will be used to decide the winner.^[3]

Tiebreakers

Tiebreakers for group ranking

If two or more teams in the same group are equal on points on completion of the league phase, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied:^[4]

Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings.^[a] If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 11 apply;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of wins in all group matches;
Higher number of away wins in all group matches;
Lower disciplinary points total in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card).
Position in the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying ranking.^[1]

Schedule

Below is the predicted schedule for the 2025–26 UEFA Women's Nations League based on the FIFA International Match Calendar.^[5]

Stage	Round	Match dates
League phase	Matchday 1 & 2	17–26 February 2025
	Matchday 3 & 4	31 March–8 April 2025
	Matchday 5 & 6	20–28 October 2025
Finals	Semi-finals	24 February–7 March 2026
	Third-place play-off
	Final
Promotion/relegation matches	First leg
Promotion/relegation matches	Second leg

Seeding

The leagues will be formed based on the Women's Euro 2025 qualifying overall ranking, taking into consideration the teams promoted and relegated at the conclusion of that competition. Teams will be seeded into pots based on the same rankings.^[1]

Russia were suspended indefinitely from all UEFA and FIFA competitions on 28 February 2022 due to their country's invasion of Ukraine,^[6] so it is assumed they will not be permitted to enter this competition.

For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan (due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict), as well as Belarus and Ukraine (due to Belarusian involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine), cannot be drawn in the same group.

Key
	Promoted after UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying league phase
	Relegated after UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying league phase

League A
Pot	Team	Rank
1	Spain	1
	Germany	2
	France	3
	Italy	4
2	Iceland	5
	Denmark	6
	England	7
	Netherlands	8
3	Sweden	9
	Norway	10
	Austria	11
	Belgium	12
4	Portugal	17
	Scotland	18
	Switzerland	19
	Wales	20

League B
Pot	Team	Rank
1	Finland	13
	Czech Republic	14
	Republic of Ireland	15
	Poland	16
2	Serbia	21
	Ukraine	22
	Northern Ireland	23
	Turkey	24
3	Croatia	25
	Hungary	26
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	27
	Slovenia	33
4	Romania	34
	Belarus	35
	Greece	36
	Albania	37

League C
Pot	Team	Rank
1	Slovakia	28
	Azerbaijan	29
	Malta	30
	Israel	31
	Kosovo	32
2	Luxembourg	38
	Montenegro	39
	Georgia	40
	Bulgaria	41
	Latvia	42
3	Faroe Islands	43
	Armenia	44
	North Macedonia	45
	Estonia	46
	Lithuania	47
4	Kazakhstan	48
	Moldova	49
	Cyprus	50
	Andorra	51

Draw

The draw is expected to take place in December 2024 or January 2025.