The 2024–25 UEFA Nations League C is the third division of the 2024–25 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the fourth season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.
League C consists of 16 UEFA members ranked from 33–48 in the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League access list, split into four groups of four. Each team will play six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October, and November 2024.[1] The winners of each group will be promoted to the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League B, and the two worst-ranked fourth-placed teams will be relegated to the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League D. In addition, the second-placed teams of each group and the two best-ranked fourth-placed teams, will advance to the promotion/relegation play-offs, played home-and-away over two legs. The League C second-placed teams will participate in promotion play-offs against the third-placed teams from League B in March 2025, while the two best-ranked League C fourth-placed teams will participate in relegation play-offs against the second-placed teams from League D in March 2026. In the play-offs, teams from the higher leagues will host the second leg, with the winners of each tie participating in the higher league for the next Nations League season, while the losers will enter the lower league.[2]
On 2 May 2022, Russia were suspended and automatically relegated from League B due to their country's invasion of Ukraine.[3] Russia were due to participate in League C for the 2024–25 season, but they were instead banned from the Nations League because the suspension was still active at the time of UEFA's entry deadline. Therefore, only one team (Gibraltar) was relegated to League D and two teams (Estonia and Latvia) were promoted from League D, so that the 2024–25 League C season would still have 16 teams.[4]
In the 2024–25 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2022–23 Nations League overall ranking.[5] The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed on 2 December 2023,[4] and were based on the access list ranking.[2]
^The identity of the play-out winners was not known at the time of the draw.
The draw for the league phase took place at the Maison de la Mutualité in Paris, France, on 8 February 2024, 18:00 CET.[6][7] Each group contained one team from each pot. For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan (due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict) could not be drawn in the same group.
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: Tiebreakers (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated Notes:
^The Romania v Kosovo match was suspended at 0–0 during second-half stoppage time, after the Kosovo team left the pitch, with the match abandoned thereafter.[23] The match was subsequently awarded as a 3–0 win for Romania.[24]
Following the league phase, the 16 League C teams will be ordered 33rd to 48th in an interim overall ranking for the 2024–25 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:[2]
The teams finishing first in the groups will be ranked 33rd to 36th according to the results of the league phase.
The teams finishing second in the groups will be ranked 37th to 40th according to the results of the league phase.
The teams finishing third in the groups will be ranked 41st to 44th according to the results of the league phase.
The teams finishing fourth in the groups will be ranked 45th to 48th according to the results of the league phase.
A final overall ranking will also be compiled, though this is only used to rank teams within their new leagues for the following edition of the competition.[2]
^ abThe goal tally takes into account the original result of fixtures that were subsequently forfeited, not the awarded scoreline.
^CEST (UTC+2) for matchdays 1–4 (September and October 2024), CET (UTC+1) for matchdays 5–6 (November 2024).
^The Romania v Kosovo match was suspended at 0–0 during second-half stoppage time, after Romanian supporters allegedly began chanting pro-Serbian and anti-Kosovo slogans. The Kosovo team left the pitch, with the match abandoned thereafter.[23] On 20 November 2024, UEFA announced that Kosovo was deemed to have forfeited the match, which was therefore awarded as a 3–0 win for Romania.[24] The Football Federation of Kosovo subsequently confirmed they would appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[34]