UEFA Nations League

[RadgerTheBadger]

When's the draw?

[Blootoon87]

We'd avoid them if it was drawn today as they are in our pot. It's 1 team from each of the pots within league C we'd get (or possibly none from pot 4 since there's 3 teams in that pot)

Oh aye, that's pretty obvious actually. I just skimmed through it the first time and seen they were next to us.

[forameus]

1 hour ago, HairyBawz said:

When's the draw?

If it's anything like FM, it'll be over the Summer of 2018.  Not sure they've decided when it'll be though, whenever UEFA fancies a lunch.

[RadgerTheBadger]

6 minutes ago, forameus said:

If it's anything like FM, it'll be over the Summer of 2018.  Not sure they've decided when it'll be though, whenever UEFA fancies a lunch.

So I've got time to take the buckets out before it starts

[Bully Wee Villa]

Any chance we could get in the piss easy bottom league if we keep losing? Our plan for the rest of the campaign should be to lose every game.

Strachan's making a decent fist of it, to be fair.

[forameus]

Does it get drawn using the UEFA coefficient or World Rankings?  WR are easier to swing over a shorter period.  Although it would still take a considerable drop on both counts.

In all seriousness, wonder if we'll see nations start to play this.  You're essentially sacrificing the longer qualifying groups to be put in a weaker Nations League Group, which in itself is by no means a sure thing.

[HibeeJibee]

It'll be UEFA coefficient.

[Pie Of The Month]

It's only UEFA ranking for the first draw. Every nation league draw after that will be based on teams getting promoted or relegated by finishing top or bottom of their group.

In the first edition of the competition, the participating sides will be classified according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings (ranking as per 15 November 2017, i.e. conclusion of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers)

In each league, four group winners are promoted (or play in the Final Four, see below) and four teams are relegated for the next competition to be played in 2020

The overall UEFA Nations League rankings will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent European Qualifiers

[forameus]

That last line is quite interesting, and a departure from how I thought they were doing it.  So the coefficient is effectively disappearing as soon as the Nations League arrives, because from then on any European Qualifying groups (assume the World Cup will remain rankings-based) will be drawn by how people are doing in the Nations League.  Interesting to see how that compares.

[parsforlife]

Still waiting on UEFA admitting this is a cluster f**k of an idea. I have absolutely no idea how we've got to this point.

[HibeeJibee]

Is the last sentence from UEFA or a media article?

Everyone knew that once up and running the Nations League would operate on the basis of promotion and relegation.

However I've not seen anything previously suggesting the qualifiers wouldn't be drawn until Nations League finished and just based on NL divisions & finishing positions.

That could be quite unfair, IMO, particularly as:

(1) - it would effectively concrete top teams in the top pots; e.g. there are only 12 teams in NL Division One so 10 of them would be guaranteed Pot 1 for the Euro qualifiers

(2) - as there are 4 sections in each NL Division with 3 or 4 teams in each but 10 groups of 5 or 6 in the Euro qualifiers, lots of pots would end-up divided between teams which finished in the same positions and had to be separated on points/goal difference/goals for

(3) - it's based on remarkably few games and a remarkably brief snapshot of time. Many nations will play just 4 games in NL, in just 2 months. In contrast the UEFA coefficient is based on 16-24 qualifiers plus finals tournament matches, spread over 4 years.

(4) - it means a much longer trek to move up or down the rankings. Wales turned things around from Pot 6 to Pot 2 in a few years. It would take 12 years to climb from NL Division Four to NL Division One.

[Pie Of The Month]

32 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Is the last sentence from UEFA or a media article?

Everyone knew that once up and running the Nations League would operate on the basis of promotion and relegation.

However I've not seen anything previously suggesting the qualifiers wouldn't be drawn until Nations League finished and just based on NL divisions & finishing positions.

That could be quite unfair, IMO, particularly as:

(1) - it would effectively concrete top teams in the top pots; e.g. there are only 12 teams in NL Division One so 10 of them would be guaranteed Pot 1 for the Euro qualifiers

(2) - as there are 4 sections in each NL Division with 3 or 4 teams in each but 10 groups of 5 or 6 in the Euro qualifiers, lots of pots would end-up divided between teams which finished in the same positions and had to be separated on points/goal difference/goals for

(3) - it's based on remarkably few games and a remarkably brief snapshot of time. Many nations will play just 4 games in NL, in just 2 months. In contrast the UEFA coefficient is based on 16-24 qualifiers plus finals tournament matches, spread over 4 years.

(4) - it means a much longer trek to move up or down the rankings. Wales turned things around from Pot 6 to Pot 2 in a few years. It would take 12 years to climb from NL Division Four to NL Division One.

 

It's taken from UEFA's website but it is an article rather than a PDF with rules of the tournament and how it will work so it's possible their own media team have made a mistake.

http://www.uefa.com/community/news/newsid=2079553.html

[tree house tam]

Looking at our potential opponents, we're fucked.

[Gordopolis]

Looking at our potential opponents, we're fucked.

Yeah, on current form we'd be relegated

[HibeeJibee]

Divisions/pots confirmed, subject to October's qualifiers/Novembers playoffs:

http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2498274.html#how+uefa+nations+league+could+line

Division A
Pot 1 ... Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain
Pot 2 ... Switzerland, France, England, Italy
Pot 3 ... Poland, Croatia, Iceland, Wales

Division B
Pot 1 ... Russia, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, Sweden
Pot 2 ... Netherlands, Ukraine, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria
Pot 3 ... Turkey, Eire, Denmark, Hungary

Division C
Pot 1 ... Slovenia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia
Pot 2 ... Scotland, Czech Rep, Romania, Greece
Pot 3 ... Bulgaria, Israel, Norway, Cyprus
Pot 4 ... Finland, Estonia, Azerbaijan

Division D
Pot 1 ... Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia
Pot 2 ... FYR Macedonia, Faroe Islands, Luxembourg, Latvia
Pot 3 ... Moldova, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Andorra
Pot 4 ... Malta, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

[Bully Wee Villa]

I've already moaned about it in the World Cup thread, but it's stupid how teams get rewarded for doing crap in the World Cup Qualifiers by being given an easier group.

Belarus have lost to Luxembourg but will have a better chance of qualifying for the Euros via the European Nations League than Scotland or Serbia.

[forameus]

3 minutes ago, Bully Wee Villa said:

I've already moaned about it in the World Cup thread, but it's stupid how teams get rewarded for doing crap in the World Cup Qualifiers by being given an easier group.

Belarus have lost to Luxembourg but will have a better chance of qualifying for the Euros via the European Nations League than Scotland or Serbia.

The idea itself is sound, giving tiered friendlies around a nation's level in some kind of competitive setting.  Awarding the Euro 2020 playoff places in the way they have though is probably not the way I would have gone about it.

[Bully Wee Villa]

Agree entirely. A move to add more competitive fixtures at the expense of friendlies is to be welcomed. The way they've done it is stupid.

[Paco]

I quite like that it gives uber-diddies like us a second shot, but I can definitely see us shooting ourselves in the foot by not taking it seriously or something equally as ridiculous.

Hypothetically, we don't finish in the top 2 in our Euro 2020 group, and win our group (by getting Montenegro, Cyprus and Estonia). How is it decided who we play in the play-offs?

[forameus]

5 minutes ago, Paco said:

I quite like that it gives uber-diddies like us a second shot, but I can definitely see us shooting ourselves in the foot by not taking it seriously or something equally as ridiculous.

Hypothetically, we don't finish in the top 2 in our Euro 2020 group, and win our group (by getting Montenegro, Cyprus and Estonia). How is it decided who we play in the play-offs?

We play one of the other group winners in our tier.  Then we play the winner between the other two group winners.  That team goes through to Euro 2020.