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The Lithuanian national team, together with the national teams of other European countries, will participate in the Nations League - a new tournament organized by UEFA starting from the 2018-2019 season.
On Wednesday, this was announced by the British newspaper "The Telegraph" and confirmed by UEFA on Thursday.
All national teams of European countries will continue to participate in world and continental championships, while the new third tournament will replace the friendly matches currently being held.
This Thursday in Astana (Kazakhstan) during the annual UEFA congress, a revolutionary restructuring plan for the national teams competition system was unanimously approved.
"This is a very important decision that will have a significant impact on the future of national teams," said UEFA president Michel Platini.
The Nations League will involve the national teams of all 54 UEFA member countries. According to the rankings, they will be divided into four different divisions.
The Nations League matches will last for two years, and in odd years, a Final Four tournament will be held in each division, with the participation of the four strongest teams.
After every two-year cycle, the four strongest teams from each division will move up to a higher division, while the four weakest will move down to a lower one.
The four strongest teams in the Nations League will immediately receive a direct ticket to the final tournament of the 2020 European Championship.
If FIFA agrees, several tickets allocated to Europe for the World Cup in the future may also be distributed based on the results of the Nations League tournament.
"This is a huge step forward for the national teams of European countries. We hope that fans will enjoy this new competition format," said Wolfgang Niersbach, chairman of the UEFA National Teams Competition Commission.
UEFA leaders did not hide the fact that the Nations League should be more profitable than individual friendly matches currently played by national teams.
"We aimed to optimize the current situation, as there are not only teams that everyone wants to play friendly matches with, but also national teams that cannot find opponents for such matches," explained Gianni Infantino, UEFA General Secretary. - That's why the idea of the Nations League was born."
