The2018–19 UEFA Nations League B was the second division of the2018–19 edition of theUEFA Nations League, the inaugural season of the internationalfootball competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations ofUEFA.[1]
League B consisted of 12 UEFA members ranked from 13 to 24, split into four groups of three. The winners of each group were promoted to the2020–21 UEFA Nations League A. The third-placed team of each group was initially to be relegated to the2020–21 UEFA Nations League C,[2] but remained in League B following UEFA's reformatting of the next edition's groups.[3]
In addition, League B was allocated one of the four remainingUEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from League B which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals competed in the play-offs for each division, which were played in October and November 2020. The play-off berths were first allocated to the group winners, and if any of the group winners had already qualified for the European Championship finals, then to the next best ranked team of the division, etc. If there were fewer than four teams in League B which had not already qualified for the European Championship finals, the play-off berths would be allocated via one of two methods:
If League B had a group winner selected for the play-offs, the next best team in the overall ranking from a lower league would be selected.
If League B had no group winner available, the best team in the overall ranking would be selected.
The playoffs consisted of two "one-off" semi-finals (best-ranked team hosts the lowest-ranked team and second best-ranked team hosts the third best-ranked team and one "one-off" final between the two semi-final winners (venue drawn in advance between semi-final 1 and 2).[4][5]
Teams were allocated to League B according to theirUEFA national team coefficients after the conclusion of the2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying group stage on 11 October 2017. Teams were split into three pots of four teams, ordered based on their UEFA national team coefficient.[6][7] The seeding pots for the draw were announced on 7 December 2017.[8]
The prize money to be distributed was announced in March 2018.[22] Each team in League B received a solidarity fee of €1 million. In addition, the four group winners received double this amount with a €1M bonus fee. This meant that the maximum amount of solidarity and bonus fees for a team from League B was €2M.
The four best teams in League B according to the overall ranking that did not qualify forUEFA Euro 2020 through thequalifying group stage competed in the play-offs, with the winners qualifying for the final tournament. If there had been fewer than four teams in League B that had not qualified, the remaining slots would have been allocated to teams from another league, according to the overall ranking.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Denmark
Sweden
Ukraine
Patrik Schick
