This competition is a bit of a mystery to me as this new Nations League is currently taking place, so here is some stuff I wasn't aware of. Maybe others aren't either... 1) The UEFA Nations League is not the Euro 2020 qualifiers. 2) The Euro 2020 qualifiers begin in March 2019 and concludes in March 2020 3) 55 nations will take part in Euro 2020 qualifying, with Kosovo taking part for the first time. 4) The draw for the 10 groups (5 groups of 5 and 5 groups of 6) will take place in Dublin on 02 December 2018. 5) There is no single host nation in 2020 - the competition will take place in 12 cities in 12 different countries - London, Munich, Rome, Baku, St Petersburg, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Dublin, Bilbao, Budapest, Glasgow, Copenhagen. 6) Wembley Stadium will host both semi-finals and the final. 7) The quarter-finals will be played in Munich, Baku, St Petersburg and Rome. The other 8 cities will host a round of 16 tie. 8) All 12 cities will host 3 group games. 9) It's supposed to be a one-off to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Championships competition. It's the brainchild of Michel Platini. 10) In qualifying, the top 2 teams in each of the 10 groups will qualify for the finals. There is no play-offs for the best 3rd place teams. The other 4 places are decided from the current UEFA Nations League. The UEFA Nations League If you're not up to speed on the Uefa Nations League: a) It will take place every 2 years b) There are 4 divisions A,B,C,D c) Divisions A and B have four sub-groups of 3 teams, C and D have four sub-groups of 4 teams (more or less) d) There is promotion and relegation between each division e) The four group A winners will qualify for the finals in June 2019 which will consist of 2 semi-finals, a 3rd/4th place play-off and the final. Venue yet to be decided. Now for the interesting, but slightly complicated bit... One team from each division A, B,C, D will qualify for the Euros 2020 if they fail to qualify via Euro 2020 qualifying campaign. Four teams from each league which have not already qualified for the European Championship finals will compete in the play-offs of their league, to be played in March 2020. The play-off berths will be first allocated to each pool winner, and if any of the pool winners have already qualified for the European Championship finals, then to the next best ranked team of the division, etc. In other words, if Wales, who are in league B, group B4, win that group they will automatically qualify for a play-off berth (assuming they don't qualify through the Euro 2020 main qualifying, which they may well do anyway.) If Denmark were to qualify for Euro 2020 through the main qualifying competition and they also win Nations League group B4, then Wales (or ROI) could claim a play-off berth by coming second in group B4. The Nations League certainly isn't a meaningless competition. I hope the info above is correct - please put me right if it's not
It is a bit complicated but i welcome this Tournament because it gives us something to play for rather than pointless friendlies during international breaks. It makes the break more tolerable......It may give us 2 bites at qualification towards the Euro's who knows.....
When does the promotion/relegation between each Division take place? I have read that this is open to abuse as some teams could deliberately lose matches to ensure they have a better chance of qualification to Euro 2020!!
I would assume promotion/relegation takes place after the play-offs. It would be crazy to do it before. I suppose if you deliberately get relegated several times in a row it might improve your play-off chances for 2024 or beyond?
This is from the BBC Website: “The sides in each group will play home and away in a 10-week period between September and November of this year, with the team finishing top of each section being promoted to a higher tier and the nation finishing bottom dropping down one” If this is the case and Wales finished top of the group with Denmark and Ireland we would be promoted to Group A and have no chance of getting to EURO 2020 via the Nations League!! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42719404
Well, I'm still convinced that the promotions and relegations can only come into force after the play-offs ready for the next time the Nations League takes place (2020/2021) which is in preparation for the World Cup. No idea how it will affect that. And promotion to league A isn't such a disaster as the vast majority of league A teams will qualify for Qatar through their own World Cup qualifying groups.
Because they'd be playing against tougher opposition, but I take aswans point that most of Group A will automatically qualify.
I think you're right about promotions/relegations. The UEFA website is also vague, but implies promotions/relegations will be at the end of the campaign. https://www.uefa.com/uefanationsleague/news/newsid=2529920.html
Fair enough. I automatically thought you meant it was due to some weird complexity of the system, rather than the obvious!
