The 54 member associations of Europe’s football governing body, UEFA, approved a resolution that will lead to a new international football tournament at its annual conference in Kazakhstan yesterday.

The format of the new tournament, dubbed the ‘Nations League’, has yet to be finalszed, but the initial plan is to split up the 54 UEFA nations into four larger groups in accordance with their respective coefficient rankings.

The four groups will be split up into smaller groups and the international match calendar – which is currently used to arrange friendlies – will be used to schedule matches. The tournament could end up providing an additional opportunity to qualify for the European Championship.

The Danish football association, DBU, welcomed the new tournament, arguing that it presents the opportunity to play interesting internationals where there is something at stake.

“I think we can see the foundation for some exciting opportunities from a sporting and commercial perspective, and there is no doubt that we are positive about the concept,” Jesper Møller, the chairman of DBU, said in a press release. 

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After 2018 World Cup
Møller is currently in Kazakhstan, along with DBU chief executive Claus Bretton-Meyer, taking part in the UEFA conference and the approval of the new tournament.

”Now the work starts to add meat to the skeleton and that is something that we are looking forward to taking part in along with the other 53 member nations in the coming months,” Møller said.

UEFA expects the first matches of the new tournament to be played in the autumn of 2018 after the World Cup that year and it to be played biennially in odd-numbered years.