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In the last few days, I've seen some confusion around how the qualification now works. It used to be simpler, with just group stages, some teams qualifying directly, and some going to the play-offs.

However, with the UEFA Nations League (UNL), things changed. We start by here. This completion has 4 leagues: A, B, C, D. These are ranked, meaning the better teams are at A, and the worst are at D. The A, B & C leagues have 4 groups of 4, and D has only 2 groups (one with 4 teams, the other with 3).

Every league in the UNL is ranked. For example, the 16 teams in League A are ranked 1-16. The four group winners are ranked 1-4, the second placed teams are ranked 5-8, the third placed teams are ranked 9-12, the fourth ranked teams are ranked 13-16.

With this in mind, let's move to the Euro qualifiers. 7 groups of 5 teams, 3 groups of 6 teams. The first two of each group are qualified. So, 10 groups, top two teams qualify. Plus Germany, we have 21 qualified teams already. Easy enough.

There are three missing, and here enters the UNL. The thing to retain is, before the Euro qualifiers even start, 12 teams have assured places in the play-offs. The four group winners of League A, League B, League C. However, if they qualify through the regular qualifiers, they have to relinquish that spot to some other team in their league who as not yet qualified.

The rule is, basically, the 4 non-best qualified teams of UNL Leagues A, B & C go to the play-offs. Using concrete examples, this are the current teams going to the play-offs:

 

| League A | League B| League C | |:-----------|:------------|:------------| | Netherlands (group winner)|Israel (GW)| Georgia (GW) | Croatia (GW) | Bosnia (GW)| Kazakhstan (GW) | Poland (11th) |Finland (5th)| Luxembourg (5th) | |Ukraine (6th)| Azerbaijan (6th)  

As you might notice, League A has only 3 teams in the play-off. This is simply because all other teams are in direct qualification positions. So, to fill this gap, the best League D group winner is selected (this year, Estonia). Easy to understand.

Now, what happens if there are less than three teams for a league available for the play-off? Besides getting the best League D team, we go for the best team not yet qualified, regardless of the League. So, let's say the Netherlands get into a direct qualification spot. To fill it, we would go to Iceland, ranked 7th in League B. I both the Netherlands and Croatia qualify, we would also get Norway.

This is the basics of it. The twelve teams that are qualified to the play-off are split into 3 different paths, one for each League A, B & C. The format is 1st vs. 4th, 2nd vs. 3rd, with the winners meting in a final, the winner of that match qualifying. Using the example of League C, right now that play-off path would be: Georgia vs. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan vs. Luxembourg.

There is just one more caveat. As you've seen, some teams from League B might have to play in "Path A". These teams are not necessarily the worst ranked in League B (in the scenario mentioned above, Iceland and Norway). The rule is, only group winners are locked in their league paths (so, in the mentioned scenario, Israel and Bosnia). The other non-group winners are put in a draw, with some filling the spots in the League A path, and the other staying in the league B path. Again with the scenario above, two of Finland, Ukraine, Iceland and Norway would play in the League A path, and two in the League B path. The best group D winner always plays in the League A path.

For better understanding, check the Wikipedia page, especially [the part with the UNL rankings] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2024_qualifying_play-offs#Teams_selected). It's really cool. Seeing how it worked in 2020 is also cool, although it had a slightly different process (League D had a path of his own). In that year, League A had one team not directly qualified, League B had four, League C had many. So three teams from League C went to play on path A.

I hope I was clear. Thank you!

The Top-15-Leagues in this case are defined by an old transfermarkt.de filter that is rather outdated by today: Top-7-Leagues + Belgium, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Czech Republic, Greece, Austria, Switzerland. These were the Top-15-Leagues a while ago it's not correct anymore as of today with the downfall of Ukraine, Russia, Greece etc. and the rise of someone like Scotland. But if you look at it over the long run, as we do here with the whole 21st century, it's still pretty spot on, because if you look at the last 10 seasons in the UEFA country ranking, this Top-15 still covers the Top-16 with only Scotland at rank 15 who have just overtaken Greece in that regard. The data is complete from 00/01 on, so that's why I started there.

These are all players with at least 510 Appearances in the Top-15-Leagues of Europe 00/01 - 22/23 by outfield players:

671 Joaquín

651 Cristiano Ronaldo

619 James Milner\* (still active in one of these leagues)

595 Jesús Navas\*

589 Raúl García\* and Gareth Barry

579 João Moutinho\*

578 Lionel Messi and Timmy Simons

569 Dirk Kuyt, Hilton

555 Fabio Quagliarella

553 Sergio Ramos\*

552 Edin Dzeko\*

551 Karim Benzema and Ivan Rakitic\*

546 Umut Bulut

541 Zlatan Ibrahimovic

540 Dimitri Payet

535 David Silva

533 Raúl Albiol\*

532 Olivier Deschacht

529 Steve von Bergen

526 Samuel Eto'o

517 Moussa Sissoko\*

515 Luis Suárez

514 Kévin Gameiro\*

513 Florent Balmont

512 Jimmy Briand

511 Tomas Hübschman\* and Sven Kums\* (Watford legend)

And if it weren't for injuries, Saudi-Arabia or coaches disrespecting club legends then David Silva, Ibra, Benzema, Ronaldo and Payet would probably also still play in one of these leagues. Tomas Hübschman is 42 years old btw and playing since 23 years, so he actually didn't play that many league games per season but his longevity gets him on here regardless; in 17 of the past seasons he played 25 league games or less (in his defense, he only played in Ukraine and Czechia which usually only offer a player 30 league games at max to participate in).

What's also impressive is that despite these high figures the majority of these players even played in other leagues too.

The count doesn't include Relegation Play-off matches (France, Germany) but it includes league intern play-off rounds (like in Belgium), so if we look only at more recent seasons Hans Vanaken is up there challenging the unbreakable Iñaki Williams for the 1st place because in Belgium you can play up to 40 league games a season.

Dante has exactly 511 games by now with his appearance in nice brest (but this above doesn't include the current season).

In case you wonder where u/MERTENS\_GOAT is in this: He is not here because he spent played lower divisions until he was 22 years old, which is rather old to start playing 1st division football. But if we were to cherry-pick our starting point to 09/10 when he joined Utrecht then he ranks at 7 with 456 games played behind just (in order most to fewest) Messi, Candreva tied with Rakitic, Kums, Griezmann and Busquets. Out of these 7 Griezmann is the only one who didn't spend all seasons in the Top-5-Leagues cause in the first season La Real played in the 2nd division. So if we were to start the count 2010/11 Griezmann would probably lead the list by a mile.