UEFA Nations League explained: Everything you need to know about the draw and new format

Everybody's third favourite international tournament involving UEFA member associations is back - that's right, the UEFA Nations League has been commissioned for a second series.The Nations League were considered a success last season. Portugal reigned supreme after defeating the Netherlands in their backyard - but it was still a good tournament for England, who finished ahead of Spain and Croatia to qualify for the semi-finals.The format has been tweaked slightly now. There's still relegation and promotion - who doesn't enjoy the prospect ofGermany getting relegated? - but UEFA have made reforms to addresssome of the issues that the inaugural tournament presented.Already confused? Here's our recap of how it all worked from the first time around.When is the UEFA Nations League draw?The UEFA Nations League 2020-21 draw will be at 5pm GMT on Tuesday, March 3 2020.The draw for the UEFA Nations League Finals in June 2021 will take place towards the end of 2020 when the four competitors from League A are determined.When does the UEFA Nations League begin?Matchday 1 of the UEFA Nations League will be played between3 and 5 September 2020 - the first international break of next season, following the summer transfer window closing across Europe.Matchday 2 will be played a few days later for each team; this takes place between 6 and 8 September 2020.Matchdays 3 and 4 will take place during the October and November international breaks.2018/19 =2020/21 =Everything you need to know ahead of the #NationsLeague draw!https://t.co/E2zQ1ScWBZ 18:00 CET Amsterdam— UEFA Nations League (@EURO2020) March 3, 2020How does the UEFA Nations League work?There are 55 member states in UEFA, following Kosovo's membership being accepted in 2016.The UEFA Nations League splits these nations into four leagues: A, B, C and D. For the original format, these divisions contained countries based on their coefficient score - so the best teams in Group A, right down to the lowest-ranked in Group D.Within each league, there are four smaller groups of three or four teams; so League A has smaller groups, A1, A2, A3 and A4, for example.The winner of each of League A's groupsgoes on to play knockout fixtures to determine the UEFA Nations League champion. Below that, however, relegation and promotion come into play.The bottom-placed team in each group gets relegated to the league below, whilst the top-placed team gets promoted to the league above.Due to the UEFA Nations League expanding its groups for this edition though, no one was relegated last time around. The teams that were promoted do, however, get to jump up a league.What are the changes to the UEFA Nations League?Originally, there were 12 teams in LeagueA, 12 in League B, 15 in League C and 16 in League D. This meant there were four groups of three nations in League A and League B. There was a groups of three and three group of four in League C and four groups of four nations in League D. Still following?Since groups of three were a little awkward, that's been tweaked slightly.League A, B and C will all consist of 16 teams. That's an even four groups of four. The four group winners in League A will play in the UEFA Nations League final again, which will be hosted in one of the countries that qualified for them.The four teams who finished bottom of League A will be relegated to League B, with the group winners from League B replacing them in League A. The same happens with League B and C.The four teams who finish bottom of League C will play in relegation play-outs. The two losers will be replaced by the two group winners of League D.League D will have just seven teams: that's one group of four and a group of three, with one promotion place on offer to both.The #NationsLeague draw takes place in Amsterdam today at 5pm GMT!Here's who the #ThreeLions could be drawn against: pic.twitter.com/vnex2HfKOh— England (@England) March 3, 2020What are the pots?The four semi-finalists from last summer's inaugural tournament find themselves in Pot 1 for the second edition. Likewise, throughout the draw, the teams who performed best in the first UEFA Nations League in 2019 are higher-seeded than the others - though this can be taken with a pinch of salt in some cases, when it comes to ranking the nations on their quality.The pots are as follows:League APot 1:Portugal, Netherlands,England,SwitzerlandPot 2:Belgium, France, Spain, ItalyPot 3:Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, Denmark, SwedenPot 4:Croatia, Poland, Germany, IcelandLeague BPot 1:Russia, Austria,Wales,Czech RepublicPot 2:Scotland,Norway, Serbia, FinlandPot 3:Slovakia, Turkey, Republic of Ireland,Northern IrelandPot 4:Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary, RomaniaLeague CPot 1:Greece, Albania, Montenegro, GeorgiaPot 2:North Macedonia, Kosovo, Belarus, CyprusPot 3:Estonia, Slovenia, Lithuania, LuxembourgPot 4:Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, MoldovaLeague DPot 1:Gibraltar, Faroe Islands, Latvia, LiechtensteinPot 2:Andorra, Malta, San MarinoWhile you’re here, why not take advantage of our brilliant subscribers’ offer? Get thegame’sgreatest stories and best journalism direct to your door for only £12.25 every three months – less than £3.80 per issue– and you’ll also receive bookazines worth £29.97!READ MORE...PREMIER LEAGUEHow Bournemouth's performance on Saturday was proof of small margins in a relegation battleQUIZCan you name every club to have played in a League Cup final since 1990?GUIDEPremier League live stream best VPN: how to watch every game from anywhere in the worldNew features you'll love on FourFourTwo.com