The 2023–24 UEFA Women's Nations League will be the inaugural 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 results will be used to determine the leagues for the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying competition. The top two teams with the exception of the prequalified host France qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
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 coefficient ranking. Leagues A and B will feature 16 teams in four groups of four teams, while League C will consist of the remaining competition entrants split into groups of three or four teams.
The teams in each group will play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The four group winners of League A will advance to the Nations League Finals, which will feature single-leg semi-finals, a third place play-off and final. An open draw will determine 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. The top two eligible teams in the Nations League Finals (excluding France) will qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
In addition, the competition will feature promotion and relegation, taking effect in UEFA Women's Euro 2025 qualifying (which will use an identical league structure). The group winners of Leagues B and C will be automatically promoted, while the fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B, as well as the lowest-ranked third-placed team in League B, will be automatically relegated. Promotion and relegation matches will also be held on a home-and-away basis, taking place in parallel with the Nations League Finals, with the winners going into the higher league and the losers going into the lower league. The third-placed teams of League A will play the runners-up of League B, while the three best-ranked third-placed teams in League B will play the three best-ranked League C runners-up. The teams from the higher leagues will be seeded, and play the second leg at home. In the two-legged ties, the team that scores more goals on aggregate is the winner. If the aggregate score is level, extra time is played (the away goals rule is not applied). If the score remains level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner.
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: 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. 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 national team coefficient ranking. Notes
Criteria for league ranking
Individual league rankings are established according to the following criteria: Position in the group; Higher number of points; Superior goal difference; Higher number of goals scored; Higher number of goals scored away from home; Higher number of wins; Higher number of wins away from home; Lower disciplinary points total (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 national team coefficient ranking.
In order to rank teams in League C, which may be composed of different sized groups, the results against the fourth-placed teams in these leagues are not taken into account for the purposes of comparing teams placed first, second and third in their respective groups.
The ranking of the top four teams in League A are determined by their finish in the Nations League Finals.