UEFA: new Nations League format adopted with 16 teams in Leagues A, B and C and 7 in League D

"The UEFA Nations League will have a new league structure comprising 16 teams in Leagues A, B and C (4 groups of 4 teams) and 7 teams in League D (1 group of 4 teams and 1 group of 3), as of the 2020-21 edition," announced UEFA at the end of its executive committee meeting in Ljubljana (SVN) on 24/09/2019. In 2018-19, the very first edition of the Nations League, 55 UEFA teams were divided into four leagues: 12 teams in Leagues A, B and C (4 groups of 3 teams) and 15 teams in League D (3 groups of 4 and 1 group of 3).

"This change to the format follows a consultation process which involved all of UEFA's 55 national associations and reflects upon their desire to further minimise the number of friendly matches. In addition, it enhances sporting fairness as all teams in the same group will play their last match on the same day and at the same time. Moreover, the number of competitive matches during the competition's league phase will increase from 138 to 162, thereby increasing the commercial value of the competition," added UEFA, which maintains the final phase system that involves…