UEFA Nations League 2018/19
- Thread starter Santos J
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
is this an April fools joke or something?
so where will this fit in with Champions League and stuff like that, players play enough already without some trumped up UEFA crap on top, clubs are gonna love this.
edit: is this under21's?
so where will this fit in with Champions League and stuff like that, players play enough already without some trumped up UEFA crap on top, clubs are gonna love this.
edit: is this under21's?
First thing I thought, sounds like something made up and convuluted to be genuine.
Which means it probably is.
What's this?
There's colour everywhere.
Replacement for international friendlies and pre-lude to WC / EC qualifications.
Nope not U21's. It's instead of the shite pointless friendlies we get but yeah it's a confusing explanation.
Sounds interesting to me, better than meaningless friendlies and I for one love watching Ireland play. Does this affect Euros/WC qualifiers in anyway? I thought they said before that teams could qualify through this.
Won’t make a single difference to the current structure. This concept is just replacing those pointless friendlies.
4 teams that don’t qualify through the regular qualifiers will make it via Nations League playoffs.
It's an excellent idea, they are replacing friendlies with this.
I quite like it. The current format is a crock of shite and something needed to change.
Also helps the minnows too. There's absolutely no point them showing up against France, Spain and Germany defending for their lives. Thats just a waste of time for all involved and they'd be better off having games against equivalent opposition.
Also helps the minnows too. There's absolutely no point them showing up against France, Spain and Germany defending for their lives. Thats just a waste of time for all involved and they'd be better off having games against equivalent opposition.
Ffs another competition to break up club football. I bet clubs aren’t pleased with this, the players have enough games to play without this shit.
It’s a minimum 6 games over a 3 month period right?
It’s a minimum 6 games over a 3 month period right?
They won’t be playing any more games than what they currently are.
So will the normal qualifiers playoffs be eliminated then? Who makes it to the Nations League playoffs?
Seems like a really good idea when it comes to replacing pointless friendlies. The play off idea though for Euro qualifiers seems a bit confusing though.
So we fail to qualify for 2 tournaments, are like number 213401 on the world ranking, yet in this we end up in group A. Seems legit..
Yeah was wondering the same, what the feck are you guys doing up there.
Yes, the top two from each group will automatically qualify now. Instead of the normal playoff, a new nations league playoff, will be held in March 2020 for teams which have not qualified directly as a top 2 team from the regular 10 groups.
4 teams from each of the different leagues that have not qualified will meet in playoffs based on leagues;
1 spot for teams from league A, 1 from B, 1 from C and 1 from D, which gives a bigger chance for the smaller nations to have one representative I guess. If most or all teams from say league A have qualified teams from the next highest league will replace them in the playoffs. I think this is kinda interesting to be honest.
The only teams with more international games than previous years are the ones going to playoffs in March, and that is even when there is a normal break anyway.
I guess this is to just break up the monotonous joy of International Friendlies but unless Countries or rather players take it as seriously as say a World Cup, it's not going to be any better than a friendly, you may end up "winning" a trophy out of it.
Thinking about the system actually it's pretty fecking dumb in some ways. A guaranteed euro spot for a team in the worst league would mean there would be incentive for teams to lose games to end up in the lower leagues for easier euro access. Interesting, but dumb.
Well this is a divisional league system with promotion/relegation and for a few countries an alternative way to qualify for the Euros. These games will also count towards the UEFA country coefficients that determine seedings, pots etc. which friendlies don’t. Players/countries will simply just have to take it seriously.
That's the bit I find confusing! If you're a middling country in League C, you may as well go down to League D as you have a better chance there for qualifying for the Euros.
Where does it say that?
Anybody who plays football manager already knows about this tournament and what it’s all about.
It’s so weird. You have 3 teams in one of 4 divisions who play each other home and away, then get through to a “semi final” against one of the other 3 winning teams.
It’s so weird. You have 3 teams in one of 4 divisions who play each other home and away, then get through to a “semi final” against one of the other 3 winning teams.
Oh that's what that is? I thought it was a glitch.
Seems like it will make international football more interesting, if only we could get rid of the one of the two international breaks at the beginning of the season.
It’s an actual real thing, replacing friendly matches I spose
http://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediaservices/mediareleases/newsid=2191279.html?redirectFromOrg=true
So 4 play-offs - one for each league, with the 4 best, non-qualified teams participating.
I doubt any country or federation with a bit of self-respect would even consider that. Besides your coefficiants will take a serious beating and you’ll at best qualify as worst seed and end up in a terrible group. These particular coefficiants will count for the next 3-4 years and you’ll continue to be poorly seeded in the following WC/Euro qualifiers. That’s no smart way to run a federation.
I’m from a ‘middling country in league C’ and I’d much rather we kick ass in that league and somehow find a way to establish us in league B rather than deliberately going down to league D.
Yeah seems better than friendlies, but when I took over France in FM I didn't know what it was, thought the game was broken when all my games were against Italy and Portugal with no Euro or WC qualifying lol
High five, UEFA!
That's the "ideal" way of looking at it but it doesn't really always pan out.
Also, only the top team from each group qualify. If you are a country who has never played in a major tournament and end up losing your first two matches in the Nations League, there is no incentive then to perform. Coefficiants mean bugger all if you were never going to qualify to begin with.
It's also a bit unfair as it means qualification to the Euros are not at an equal footing. In your case it will be far annoying if Norway couldn't qualify as they did nothing of note but Macedonia was able to by winning League D. Think the tournament would be better off not having the Euro qualification involved at all.
We'll see
I agree that it would be stupid, but I wouldn't be suprised to see teams not take the nations league serious as doing so would harm their chances of qualifying the next time;Most teams from group D will have little interest in getting promoted for example, as it would harm their chances of going to the Euros. None of them are realistically going to qualify directly via the qualification group, so a potential play-off with teams around their level is a much more realistic way to the euros.
Getting promoted would even mean that they would have little chance of even making the playoff in that respective group. I don't see how that is that unrealistic. If say Armenia could get promoted on the final day, but also stay down if they drew or lost, I wouldn't be suprised to see them not bother fully with the match. I believe it's going to end up being a lot of shitty games between poor teams, not wanting to get promoted.
But to make play-offs they'll need to come top 4. Top 4 are promoted. So avoiding promotion will do no good as it'll be avoiding the play-offs as well.We'll see
Most teams from group D will have little interest in getting promoted for example, as it would harm their chances of going to the Euros. None of them are realistically going to qualify directly via the qualification group, so a potential play-off with teams around their level is a much more realistic way to the euros.
Getting promoted would even mean that they would have little chance of even making the playoff in that respective group. I don't see how that is that unrealistic. If say Armenia could get promoted on the final day, but also stay down if they drew or lost, I wouldn't be suprised to see them not bother fully with the match. I believe it's going to end up being a lot of shitty games between poor teams, not wanting to get promoted.
Any change from the current shite is a positive.
Ah of course, that makes sense at least! For some reason I had in mind not all who make the play-off will get promoted. Disregard that post then
But it works the other way around, I guess, even if it is way more hypothetical. Team X on the verge of relegation to group D, will probably not care that much about actual relegation as it means higher potential for qualification next tournament compared to staying as a bottom-feeder in group C? Probably too hypothetical I guess. Definite "can a loss be a win" scenario tbh.
here is a fuller article on it all, I'm still in the 'it's shit camp' as for me there are far too many internationals
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41580638
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41580638
Don’t mind the amount of games. Runs similar to the to the current platform of friendlies in international windows.
They are making friendlies matter a bit more. No harm in that, and effectively no really naff friendlies against Timbuktu followed by Tanzania.... teams already deemed on your level by coefficients.
Top teams can still rotate a little, since top 2 placing in the normal euro qualifiers guarantees qualification.
See no harm in trying it
They are making friendlies matter a bit more. No harm in that, and effectively no really naff friendlies against Timbuktu followed by Tanzania.... teams already deemed on your level by coefficients.
Top teams can still rotate a little, since top 2 placing in the normal euro qualifiers guarantees qualification.
See no harm in trying it
This competition looks a right mess.