The 2025 UEFA Women's Nations League is 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 was played between February and June, with the finals tournament taking place between October and December. The results also determined the leagues for the FIFA Women's World Cup 2027 qualifying competition.
The competition began with the league stage, featuring the national teams split into three leagues (A, B, and C) according to the Women’s European Qualifiers overall phase rankings (based on the Women's Euro 2025 qualifying overall ranking, taking into consideration promotion/relegation at the conclusion of that competition).[1] Leagues A and B featured 16 teams in four groups of four teams, while League C consisted of the remaining competition entrants split into groups of three or four teams. The teams in each group played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.
The four group winners of League A advanced to the Nations League Finals, consisting of two semi-finals, a third place play-off, and a final, all played over two legs (this differed to the previous edition where all the Nations Leagues Finals matches were single-legged).[2] An open draw determined the pairings and order of legs for the semi-final matches, as well as which semi-final pairing will have its teams host the first leg of the third-place play-off and final.[2]
In addition, the competition featured promotion and relegation, taking effect in Women's World Cup 2027 qualifying (which uses an identical league structure). The group winners of Leagues B and C were automatically promoted, while the fourth-placed teams in Leagues A and B, as well as the two lowest-ranked third-placed teams in League B, were automatically relegated. Promotion/relegation play-offs were also held on a home-and-away basis, taking place in parallel with the Nations League semi-finals, to determine which of the other teams were promoted, relegated or remain in their respective leagues. The third-placed teams of League A played the runners-up of League B, while the two best-ranked third-placed teams in League B played the two best-ranked League C runners-up. The teams from the higher leagues were seeded, and played the second leg at home.
In all two-legged ties, the team that scored more goals on aggregate was the winner. If the aggregate score was level, extra time would be played (the away goals rule did not apply). If the score remained level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner.[2]
Tiebreakers
Tiebreakers for group ranking
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]
Points obtained in matches played among the teams in question;
Goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
Number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question;
If two or more teams are still tied after applying criteria a–c, those criteria are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question. If teams are still tied, then criteria e–k are applied;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Number of goals scored in all group matches;
Number of away goals scored in all group matches;
Number of wins in all group matches;
Number of away wins in all group matches;
Lower total of disciplinary points received by players and team officials in all group matches:
1 point for a yellow card;
3 points for a second yellow card in the same match (indirect red card);
3 points for a direct red card;
Position in the Women's European Qualifiers overall phase ranking.[1]
Criteria for league ranking
Individual league rankings were established according to the following criteria:[2]
Position in the group;
Higher number of points;
Higher 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 Women's European Qualifiers overall phase ranking.[1]
When ranking teams in League C, due to differing group sizes, the results against the fourth-placed teams are not considered when comparing teams placed first, second, and third in their respective groups.[2]
Criteria for overall ranking
After the conclusion of all group matches, the overall league rankings were established as follows:[2]
The 16 League A teams are ranked 1st to 16th according to their league rankings.
The 16 League B teams are ranked 17th to 32nd according to their league rankings.
The League C teams are ranked 33rd onwards according to their league rankings.
The UEFA Women's Nations League overall phase rankings were established after the conclusion of the promotion/relegation play-offs, and were used to determine the starting positions and seeding of the teams in Women's World Cup 2027 qualifying. The order of the teams in the overall phase rankings is based on the overall league rankings, with the following modifications:[2]
The automatically promoted teams are ranked above teams from lower leagues that were promoted after their promotion/relegation matches
The automatically relegated teams are ranked below teams from higher leagues that were relegated after their promotion/relegation matches
Schedule
Below is the schedule for the 2025 UEFA Women's Nations League.[3]
The leagues were formed according to the Women's European Qualifiers overall phase rankings,[1] and were seeded into pots based on the same rankings.[3][2]
Gibraltar and Liechtenstein entered the tournament for the first time, having not entered in the previous edition. This was both women's teams' first official competitive international tournament.[4][5][6]
The draw took place on 7 November 2024 at 13:00 CET in Nyon, Switzerland.[3]
Teams were drawn from their seeding pots into groups for each league, starting with League C, then League B, and finally League A. In each league, all teams were drawn from Pot 1 and assigned to groups in ascending order until the pot was empty, then the draw continued with Pot 2 and so on.[3]
For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as Belarus and Ukraine, could not be drawn in the same group. Due to excessive travel restrictions, Kazakhstan could not be drawn into a group containing more than one of Andorra, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, or Malta.[3]
At the conclusion of the league phase, the results of each team's league rankings were used to calculate the overall league rankings, according to the ranking criteria.[2]
↑ Due to differing group sizes in League C, results against fourth-placed teams are not considered when comparing teams placed first, second, and third in their respective groups.[2]
Overall phase rankings
After the conclusion of the promotion/relegation play-offs, the overall league rankings were adjusted according to the ranking criteria to establish the UEFA Women's Nations League overall phase rankings, which were used to determine the starting positions and seeding of the teams in Women's World Cup 2027 qualifying.[2]
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Tessa Wullaert 
