| Tourney Name: | UEFA Nations League |
| Year: | 2022–23 |
| Size: | 100 |
| Num Teams: | 55 |
| Champion: | ESP |
| Count: | 1 |
| Second: | CRO |
| Third: | ITA |
| Fourth: | NED |
| Matches: | 162 |
| Goals: | 425 |
| Attendance: | 3225868 |
| Top Scorer: | Erling Haaland Aleksandar Mitrović (6 goals each) |
| Prevseason: | 2020–21 |
| Nextseason: | 2024–25 |
The 2022–23 UEFA Nations League was the third season of the UEFA Nations League, an international association football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.[1] The competition was held from June to September 2022 (league phase), June 2023 (Nations League Finals), and March 2024 (relegation play-outs).[2] [3]
Following their win in 2021, defending champions France were unable to retain their title in the finals after finishing third in their group.[4] [5]
Spain won the final against Croatia, 5–4 on penalties following a 0–0 draw after extra time, for their first UEFA Nations League title.
The 55 UEFA national teams were divided into four leagues, with Leagues A, B, and C featuring 16 teams each, divided into four groups of four teams. League D featured seven teams divided into two groups, with one containing four teams and the other containing three. The teams were allocated to leagues based on the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League overall ranking. Each team played six matches within their group, except for one group in League D which played four, using the home-and-away round-robin format in June (four matchdays) and September 2022 (two matchdays).[6]
In the top division, League A, teams competed to become the UEFA Nations League champions. The four group winners of League A qualified for the Nations League Finals in June 2023, which was played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings, along with the administrative home teams for the third place play-off and final, were determined using a draw. The host country was selected among the four qualified teams by the UEFA Executive Committee, with the winners of the final crowned as the Nations League champions.
Teams also competed for promotion and relegation to a higher or lower league. The group winners in Leagues B, C, and D were promoted, while the last-placed teams of each group in Leagues A and B were relegated. As League C had four groups while League D had only two, the League C team that was to be relegated was determined by relegation play-outs in March 2024.
Originally, the play-outs would have involved all four of the fourth-placed League C teams, with the two losers being relegated to League D.[2] However, due to the ongoing suspension of Russia from all UEFA competitions,[7] the league allocation for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League was changed so that only one team would be relegated to League D, ensuring that League C would still consist of 16 teams.[8] Based on the Nations League overall ranking of the fourth-placed teams, the two worst-ranked teams qualified for the play-outs.[8]
The tie was played over two legs, with the higher-ranked team hosting the second leg. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs remained in League C, while the loser was relegated to League D. If the aggregate score was level, extra time was played without the away goals rule. If the score remained level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner.[2]
If two or more teams in the same group were equal on points on completion of the league phase, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied:[2]
Notes
Individual league rankings were established according to the following criteria:[2]
To rank teams in Leagues B and D, which were composed of different sized groups, the results against the fourth-placed teams in these leagues were not taken into account when comparing teams placed first, second and third in their respective groups.[2] [9]
The ranking of the top 4 teams in League A was determined by their finish in the Nations League Finals.[2]
The overall UEFA Nations League rankings were established as follows:[2]
See main article: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying and UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs.
The 2022–23 UEFA Nations League was linked with UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for UEFA Euro 2024.
The Euro 2024 qualifying group stage took place from March to November 2023, deciding 20 of the 23 teams that advanced to the final tournament to join hosts Germany. The 53 teams were drawn into ten groups after the completion of the UEFA Nations League (seven groups of five teams and three groups of six teams, with the four participants in the 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals guaranteed to be drawn into groups of five teams), with the top two teams in each group qualifying. The draw seeding was based on the overall ranking of the Nations League.
Following the qualifying group stage, the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs took place in March 2024. The participants of the play-offs were not decided based on results from the qualifying group stage. Instead, twelve teams were selected based on their performance in the 2022–23 Nations League. These teams were divided into three paths, each containing four teams, with one team from each path qualifying for the final tournament. The group winners of Nations Leagues A, B, and C automatically qualified for the play-off path of their league unless they had already qualified for the final tournament via the qualifying group stage. If a group winner had already qualified through the qualifying group stage, they were replaced by the next best-ranked team in the same league. However, if there were not enough non-qualified teams in the same league, then the spot would go first to the best-ranked group winner of League D unless that team had already qualified for the final tournament. The remaining slots were then allocated to the next best team in the Nations League overall ranking, with the restriction that group winners of Leagues B and C could not face teams from a higher league.
The three play-off paths each featured two single-legged semi-finals and one single-legged final. In the semi-finals, the best-ranked team hosted the fourth-ranked team, and the second-ranked team hosted the third-ranked team. The host of each final was drawn between the winners of the semi-final pairings. The three play-off path winners joined the 20 teams that already qualified for the final tournament via the group stage.[10]
The schedule of the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League was as follows.[2] Due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar that took place at the end of the year, the league phase was played in June and September 2022.
| Stage | Round | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| League phase | Matchday 1 | 1–4 June 2022 |
| Matchday 2 | 5–8 June 2022 | |
| Matchday 3 | 9–11 June 2022 | |
| Matchday 4 | 12–14 June 2022 | |
| Matchday 5 | 22–24 September 2022 | |
| Matchday 6 | 25–27 September 2022 | |
| Finals | Semi-finals | 14–15 June 2023 |
| Third place play-off | 18 June 2023 | |
| Final | ||
| Relegation play-outs | First leg | 21 March 2024 |
| Second leg | 26 March 2024 |
The relegation play-outs of League C were scheduled on the same dates as the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs. If one or more of the teams due to participate in the relegation play-outs had also qualified for the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs, the relegation play-outs would have been cancelled and the lowest-ranked team in League C Nations League overall ranking would have been automatically relegated.[2]
All 55 UEFA national teams entered the competition. The teams which finished bottom of their group in Leagues A and B, as well as the losers from the relegation play-outs of League C, from the 2020–21 season moved down a league, while the group winners of Leagues B, C, and D moved up. The remaining teams stayed in their respective leagues.[13]
In the 2022–23 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2020–21 Nations League overall ranking,[14] with a slight modification: teams that were relegated in the previous season were ranked immediately below those who were promoted.[2] The seeding pots for the league phase were based on the access list ranking. The seeding pots, draw procedure, and fixture list procedures were confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee during their meeting in Chișinău, Moldova, on 22 September 2021.[15]
| Promoted in previous season after league phase | ||
| Relegated in previous season after league phase | ||
| Relegated in previous season after relegation play-outs |
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The draw for the league phase took place at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, on 16 December 2021, 18:00 CET.[16] [17] The draw, originally planned to take place in Montreux, was held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[18] [19]
As the league phase would be played in June and September 2022, no winter venue restrictions were applied in the draw. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine) could not be drawn into the same group. Due to restrictions of excessive travel, any group could contain a maximum of one of the following pairs: Andorra and Kazakhstan, Malta and Kazakhstan, Northern Ireland and Kazakhstan, Gibraltar and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Iceland, Israel and Iceland.[15]
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Nations League A.
See main article: 2023 UEFA Nations League Finals.
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See main article: 2023 UEFA Nations League final.
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B.
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C.
See main article: 2022–23 UEFA Nations League D.
The results of each team were used to calculate the overall ranking of the competition,[2] [20] which was used for seeding in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying group stage draw.[10]
See main article: UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying play-offs.
Teams who were unsuccessful in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying group stage could still qualify for the final tournament via the play-offs. Leagues A, B, and C in the UEFA Nations League were each allocated one of the three remaining UEFA Euro 2024 places. Four teams who did not already qualify for the European Championship finals competed in the play-offs for each of those leagues, with the matches taking place in March 2024.[10]