I'm a bit confused on how the UEFA Nations League works especially how it affects qualification for the finals. i.e. how many teams from each league qualify.... Even the BBC blurb is a bit vague. "But what is the Nations League? How does it work? And what's the point of it? Uefa say it "creates more meaningful and competitive matches for teams and a dedicated calendar and structure for national team football". The competition, which starts in September 2018, will provide four qualifying spots for Euro 2020 and will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent Euro 2020 qualifiers. By virtue of the format, lower-tier countries - the bottom 16 in the rankings - are now guaranteed one of the 24 qualifying slots for the European Championship finals. There will also be promotion and relegation between divisions. Each of the four tiers A, B, C and D will contain four groups of three or four teams, with these decided in a draw on Wednesday, 24 January 2018 in Lausanne, Switzerland."
Does anyone know if there is any seeding to the different leagues? If there isn't, imagine if Germany, France, Spain and Italy got drawn together, should one of those really be relegated over lesser teams like; England, Iceland or Holland? Bah!
Aren't the groups DH quoted what they call 'pots' in the world cup or Euro draw? i.e one team from the league A gets drawn and the group is made up with one of each from groups B,C and D? Otherwise Spain could meet Germany in the opening group game - and the rest of the contest is rendered largely meaningless, if the top 2 go head to head at the outset? Just guessing, of course.
No they are more like leagues than pots, so all games should be competitive. There is seeding within each league, so for the top league. 1st seeds: Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain 2nd seeds: France, England, Switzerland, Italy 3rd seeds: Poland, Iceland, Croatia, Netherlands Each group in league A has 3 teams, with each meeting home and away for a total of 4 fixtures. Then there's relegation for the teams at the bottom of each group, and playoffs for the group winners. In league B, Wales N.Ireland and RoI are all in different pots, so could conceivably be drawn together.
<deep sigh> I used to far prefer it when Danny Blanchflower drew the home teams and Cyrile Regis, or someone of that ilk, the away sides. If it ain't broke don't 'fix' it
I might be unusual in that I think it's actually a decent idea. The execution is possibly a little off, but the idea of a tournament where teams regularly test themselves against their peers appeals to me. We moan that Euro/WC qualifiers don't give us a good idea of how we stack up against "real" opposition - hopefully this tournament addresses this. It replaces friendlies with something a bit more meaningful, which should make for a better spectacle too. I think the structure is a bit convoluted, and 4 relegations/promotions per league in each cycle seems excessive, but I think it's a format that will be tinkered with.
Yes, I'm sure there will be some 'fine tuning' in the initial stages, but I get what you mean about France v Spain more watchable and evenly contested than either of them v Moldova or Malta, for example. <onehorserace>
