19:45 Thursday Struggling to raise any enthusiasm tbh Probably made even worse by commentators referring to “that” goal and that cock beckham getting his face on everything
I saw yesterday, that for the return game away in Greece next month, there's been 10,229 applications for England tickets.
I'd be more enthusiastic if I actually understood how the **** it's supposed to work. We're in a league but I don't know who with. We're in a league but I don't know at what hierarchical level that is. We're in a league but we don't seem to play everyone in our group. Can we be promoted? Is it like Rugby League or can we be relegated? Is there any point to it? It seems like an international equivalent to the Watney Cup. Also in my mind the Nations League is too similar to The League of Nations. I'm assuming that we've hoyed Russia out already. Just waiting for Germany, Italy and Japan to leave in a huff. Then it'll provaricate in a mealy mouthed fashion for a few years before becoming so ineffective that it ceases to exist.
It’s basically a glorified friendly, given a “competitive” title, but ultimately, it’s a friendly. Or in other words, a week where there’s no interest in football, & a chance for ITV & BBC to fight over who’s showing it & Sky to rave & promote the women’s game.
It isn’t a friendly at all, it is a competition with a structure, a winner and a wider purpose (it provides a route in the Euro finals). This is not information that is difficult to find out.
Yeah to be fair some of the middle to lower nations take it seriously because its a route into the euros. Georgia qualified for the euro's via their Nations league standing.
I think you're confusing it with the new Champions League format in some ways. The Nations League is way simpler than you're suggesting. Yes you can be relegated and promoted. We got relegated last time so we're now in the second tier. We do play everyone in our group. I think it's a reasonable competition, and I think other countries take it more seriously. In this country we're very limited and conditional about our love for the game. Basically any new competition will find it hard to break through and be accepted as meaningful here, particularly an international one at a time where it's very popular to be loudly disinterested in the international game. Spain won the last one and they see it as two major tournaments won in a row with the euros this summer. I think here most people probably didn't even know they'd won the NL, and they were definitely underestimated on these shores before the tournament kicked off.
I didn't know who England was even playing 'til I read it on here, that's how much interest i've got in the game.
Each to their own, but I for one see this tournament as a meaningless distraction,an unnecessary infringement on our weekly domestic footballing interests.Put to the vote (IMO) it would be overwhelmingly rejected by the paying public...We want our weekly kick watching our Team not some makeshift England side playing against some or other minnow. It's understandable that we forego the pleasure of watching our team to make way for the Euro's and the World Cup but this latest faux addition is taking things a bit far,it's a nothingness. Teams like ours in the Championship(for example) have 46 games to plough through over the course of a season and because of these interruptions we see more unnecessary midweek fixtures(some of which will undoubtedly be missed through work commitment or prior engagement by those stumping up for season passes). We've been fortunate in the last few years that poor weather over the winter period hasn't impacted too heavily on our fixtures but let's imagine,just for a minute,that we get a foot of snow this winter and sub zero temperatures? The words 'fixture','backlog' and 'injuries' come to mind...
They’re not unnecessary, they are necessary for the manager and players of international sides to work together and make a team over very limited time. They only replace what would have been friendlies before anyway, there are no extra breaks for them. It’s just added more interest and competition to what were previously meaningless fixtures beyond team building exercises.
I’m aware it’s not a friendly & of what it offers, for teams that struggle to get to major tournaments it’s great, same as qualifying groups, but for the majority of fans of the more established nations, this, like qualifying, has limited interest.
There's an argument about fixture congestion in the modern game certainly, but I'm not sure whether the Nations League is to blame for that. As Amin said, it was supposed to replace friendlies. Whether it's actually led to more games or not I'm not sure. I do think the June international break in which a lot of Nations League games happen is daft though. England seem to do terribly in those games too, presumably because most of our players really aren't arsed at that time of year. There's definitely room for improvement in the calendar, but personally I like international football and I like the idea of an international tournament which is something closer to an ongoing league format. The NL isn't perfect in my opinion but I think there's a performative disinterest in it here that other countries don't seem to share.
