UEFA Prohibited clashes list

[Stoo61]

Awesome

Incidently the Balkans are my favourite part of...earth (aside from Scotland). If you haven't been get down there. 

[HibeeJibee]

Presumably you lot want Israel playing in Asian qualifying then?

There would be withdrawals, denied entries, boycotts, attacks, riots, half their games.

Situations like Spain not playing Gibraltar is farcical - there hasn't been shots fired been Britain and Spain there since Rooke rowed ashore about 300yrs ago - but it appears wise not to put nations who've literally been fighting each other together. Go back half century and a WC qualifier in Central America literally sparked war.

[oneteaminglasgow]

54 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Presumably you lot want Israel playing in Asian qualifying then?

I actually do, but that’s just so we never have to fucking play them again. 

[craigkillie]

Israel is in Asia and should play in Asia. If other teams don't want to play them then that's up to them and they should forfeit those matches.

The alternative is that UEFA are given one of Asia's qualifying spots in lieu of taking on an extra team.

[DiegoDiego]

Was it Azerbaijan who sent the secret police round to arrest people who had voted for Armenia on the Eurovision Song Contest one year?

I'm not sure if they were officially arrested, but they were definitely questioned. Think there were something like 28 folk in total.

Ultimately, if you can’t ensure a safe environment for every country you’re drawn to face then you don’t belong in the competition. Some of those conflicts seem particularly one sided tbh. I don’t think Israel would have a problem playing against an Arab side, for example. Likewise Armenia would be perfectly happy to host Azerbaijan but not vice versa. 

I really don't think Armenia would be happy to host Azerbaijan.

Hang on, if Armenia and Azerbaijan don’t play each other due to clashes over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, how come there’s no issue with Moldova playing Ukraine despite the fact that they are also in a conflict over a region (Transnistria)? 

Ukraine don't give a f**k about Transnistria, they're certainly not in conflict with Moldova about it.

[gannonball]

Tbh the likes of Russia and Israel should be banned anyway for land grabs of other member countries  and restricting players playing for their countries.

[Sortmeout]

Am I not right in saying that some of these same rules are applied in club football too and Russian/Ukrainian teams kept apart in draws as long as possible? 
 

**heads off to check this season’s European fixture to find out how dumb he looks**

[Shipa]

1 minute ago, Sortmeout said:

Am I not right in saying that some of these same rules are applied in club football too and Russian/Ukrainian teams kept apart in draws as long as possible? 
 

**heads off to check this season’s European fixture to find out how dumb he looks**

I understand these apply to CL/EL also. You could be drawn against a Ukrainian team, fancy your chances there, but as there's already a Russian in your group, the Ukrainian gets moved and you get a tougher draw through no fault of yours.

This has been the case for a good few years, and I very much believe that if the FA/national authorities cannot vouch for the safety of ALL visiting teams, then they and their clubs should be prohibited from competeing.

I know we shouldn't bring politics into football, but maybe bringing football into politics would help - especially in these competitions where rich, powerful folk, at fear of losing money, might be more inclined to get round the table?

[Sergeant Wilson]

If we just went back to USSR and Yugoslavia most of this would be cleared up.

[Sortmeout]

8 minutes ago, Shipa said:

I understand these apply to CL/EL also. You could be drawn against a Ukrainian team, fancy your chances there, but as there's already a Russian in your group, the Ukrainian gets moved and you get a tougher draw through no fault of yours.

This has been the case for a good few years, and I very much believe that if the FA/national authorities cannot vouch for the safety of ALL visiting teams, then they and their clubs should be prohibited from competeing.

I know we shouldn't bring politics into football, but maybe bringing football into politics would help - especially in these competitions where rich, powerful folk, at fear of losing money, might be more inclined to get round the table?

Totally agree.

UEFA and FIFA though seem as incompetent as they are corrupt and I’m sure sponsors like Gasprom would have something to say if UEFA suddenly started telling Russia and their clubs to keep politics out of it.

[BigDoddyKane]

9 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

If we just went back to USSR and Yugoslavia most of this would be cleared up.

and we would qualify for world cups again

[AsimButtHitsASix]

There's also prohibited clashes for travel reasons. If, during the draw, Kazakhstan are drawn against Iceland, Scotland, Faroes, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England or Portgual they then can't be drawn against any of the other ones. It's seen as unfair to make them travel such a huge distance for more than one game. There's a few others but none as drastic as that one. 

[ahemps]

38 minutes ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

There's also prohibited clashes for travel reasons. If, during the draw, Kazakhstan are drawn against Iceland, Scotland, Faroes, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England or Portgual they then can't be drawn against any of the other ones. It's seen as unfair to make them travel such a huge distance for more than one game. There's a few others but none as drastic as that one. 

So if the drew Iceland they could still get Spain and Norway? Hardly much of a saving from also getting Portugal and Scotland.

I just looked on google earth at Kazakhstan, it borders 4 Asian countries and Russia (1 UEFA) and at a quick guestimate it looks like Iceland and Australia are about the same distance from them.

Why do they play in the UEFA qualifiers? Would they not have more chance playing in the Asian qualifiers?

[DiegoDiego]

So if the drew Iceland they could still get Spain and Norway? Hardly much of a saving from also getting Portugal and Scotland.
I just looked on google earth at Kazakhstan, it borders 4 Asian countries and Russia (1 UEFA) and at a quick guestimate it looks like Iceland and Australia are about the same distance from them.
Why do they play in the UEFA qualifiers? Would they not have more chance playing in the Asian qualifiers?

Reykjavik is about 5,000km from Nur-Sultan, the closest point in Australia is over 9,000km.

I think the reason for their switch was that the Asian qualifiers involved loads of matches against utter diddies, whereas Euro and UEFA World Cup qualifying was a more consistent schedule against teams their squad could actually be arsed traveling for matches against.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

There's a thing about winter venues. Because of difficulties with winter conditions and fitting all the games in you can't have more than two "winter venues" (Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia, Ukraine) in a single group. 

So if Group A has Faroe Island and Lithuania come in from Pots 5 and 4 then Norway, Russia, Ukraine would be out of the running for joining that group. 

There are also two "hard winter venues" (Faroes and Iceland) who cannot be drawn together at all because neither can play home games for six months of the year and so it would be impossible to get all the fixtures in. 

As for the excessive travel. 
Azerbaijan can't be in a group with more than one of Iceland, Gibraltar or Portugal.
Iceland can't be in a group with more than one of Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia or Israel
Kazakhstan can't be in a group with more than one of England, France, Gibraltar, Iceland, Malta, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, Wales, Andorra and Faroe Islands.

Malta seems an especially weird one for Kazakhstan. Surely, as you say, Norway or Netherlands is further away than Malta. 

[ahemps]

6 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

 

Reykjavik is about 5,000km from Nur-Sultan, the closest point in Australia is over 9,000km.

I think the reason for their switch was that the Asian qualifiers involved loads of matches against utter diddies, whereas Euro and UEFA World Cup qualifying was a more consistent schedule against teams their squad could actually be arsed traveling for matches against.

Fair enough, that is some distance, it didn't look that big on the map on my first glance.

According to current FIFA rankings they'd be 22nd in Asia but are around 48th in Europe. They are unlikely going to improve in Europe as they have been around this ranking for some time. In Asia they have neighbours Uzbekistan and Kyrgyztan ranked above them and small countries like Palestine and Oman. They would definitely improve their ranking and qualification hopes here. They would surely quality for the Asia cup which has 24 teams in it as well while they are very unlikely to qualify for the Euros.

I don't subscribe to the statement they can only be arsed playing the European teams. They finished 2nd in their nations league group with Georgia, Latvia and Andorra, hardly exhilarating ties for them. 

[Donathan]

That winter venues rule is daft as well. If the likes of Iceland aren’t allowed to use the weather to their advantage by playing home games in the winter, why should large parts of Southern Europe be allowed to use the weather to their advantage by hosting games in seering heat in the June and September windows.

 

Why should some of the South American teams be allowed to host matches up a mountain and benefit from the altitude?

 

Ultimately one of the beautiful nuances of international football is that home teams can use local conditions to their favour, whether that be extreme heat, altitude, hostile crowds etc. Cold weather teams SHOULD be allowed to play at home in the winter. 

[DiegoDiego]

That winter venues rule is daft as well. If the likes of Iceland aren’t allowed to use the weather to their advantage by playing home games in the winter, why should large parts of Southern Europe be allowed to use the weather to their advantage by hosting games in seering heat in the June and September windows.

How often are games postponed in southern Europe due to the heat? How often are games in northern Europe postponed due to snow?

It's not League Two, they can't just reschedule it for the following midweek.

[oneteaminglasgow]

I thought part of the Kazakhstan in UEFA thing was that it’s financially much better for their clubs to play in UEFA competitions than the Asian equivalents?

[Sergeant Wilson]

7 minutes ago, oneteaminglasgow said:

I thought part of the Kazakhstan in UEFA thing was that it’s financially much better for their clubs to play in UEFA competitions than the Asian equivalents?

Like Brechin trying to get in the LL?