A note on the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs

The 2018-19 UEFA Nations League is the inaugural season of this competition, which provides the basis of the seeding for the 55 men's national football teams participating in the qualification process of the UEFA European Championship 2020. In addition, unlike previous editions, the teams for the play-offs are also selected with the consideration of their performance in the 2018-19 UEFA Nations League. Thus 16 teams, which failed to qualify through their group, are divided into four paths of four teams each according to a complicated rule because the places vacated by the 20 directly qualified teams should be filled. We provide a critical examination of the relevant UEFA regulations and show that the articles may contradict to each other and may lead to an unfair formulation of play-off paths. Straightforward solutions for both problems are suggested