UEFA Nations Cup

[pineapple stu]

Bit on the UEFA site (http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2498274.html?rss=2498274+How+the+UEFA+Natio ns+League+could+line+up) about this today, and the possible pools.

Initial divisions will be based on national team coefficients (http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/General/02/47/77/34/2477734_DOWNLOAD.pdf) (pdf link) at the end of next month - we look to be safe enough in League B, although we'd be one of the weakest teams. But we could drop to League C before it starts if we fail to win either of our final two games (you'd hope we'd beat Moldova and gain an extra 1.2 coefficient points; I haven't looked at the full permutations)

Current leagues are -

LEAGUE A (teams to be split into four groups of three)
Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, France, England, Italy, Poland, Croatia, Iceland, Wales

LEAGUE B (teams to be split into four groups of three)
Russia, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Sweden, Netherlands, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Hungary

LEAGUE C (teams to be split into one group of three, and three groups of four)
Slovenia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Scotland, Czech Republic, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria, Israel, Norway, Cyprus, Finland, Estonia, Azerbaijan

LEAGUE D (teams to be split into four groups of four)
Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, FYR Macedonia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Latvia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Andorra, Malta, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

I like the idea - basically friendlies with a bit of an edge, but can still experiment in them because they don't really matter - but I don't like the 4 groups of 3 teams and then play-offs bit; would rather a straight 8 or 10-team league, with 2 up/2 down. As it stands, it could be as few as 4 games for us, against just two different teams.

One team in each group (not each league) will get relegated each season, and one team will get promoted, which is a lot of churn. So we are going to have seasons in League C, maybe League A, and possibly even League D.

The League D winners will qualify for the Euros...

No word yet on when the draw will be.

[pineapple stu]

I meant the UEFA Nations League...not the Nations Cup, which was the original Euros...

Can't edit the title though - maybe a mod can sort?

[backstothewall]

It would seem likely to lead to games against the north at some point soon. As well as game against Scotland & Wales in time. I like that

[NeverFeltBetter]

Like Stu, I like the idea of this in theory, although the mechanics of it fry my brain a little. I think every group winner (aside from going up in leagues) goes into a play-off situation with the other group winners, with the winner of that getting into the Euros automatically. Unless they have already qualified through normal qualifying procedures, in which case the next highest team in the groups goes into the play-offs. I think.

[Philly]

So we could deliberately get relegated into Group D and then qualify for the EUROs? :)

[Closed Account]

So we could deliberately get relegated into Group D and then qualify for the EUROs? :)http://www.football-rankings.info/2017/07/uefa-nations-league-losing-could.html

[geysir]

http://www.football-rankings.info/2017/07/uefa-nations-league-losing-could.html

It use to be not playing friendlies was the key to getting ahead now it's losing games:rolleyes:

It's a bit ironic though that Finland were mentioned as the example team that could lose the last 4 games and benefit greatly, then the Finns go all out on a winning spree to salvage some pride.
Pride before profit :)