UEFA Nations League 2024 Onwards

[craigkillie]

1 hour ago, Binos said:

It wasn't broke and there was no need to fix it

Both fifa and uefa acting like what they now are, corporations looking for growth and increased advertising revenue,  to the detriment of football 

The competition is only in its third iteration and has already changed format once. What's the big deal with making another change which will objectively make it more interesting?

[Binos]

6 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

The competition is only in its third iteration and has already changed format once. What's the big deal with making another change which will objectively make it more interesting?

Because its devaluing the world cup and the euros in the process,  obviously 

[craigkillie]

13 minutes ago, Binos said:

Because its devaluing the world cup and the euros in the process,  obviously 

In what way are the World Cup or Euros being devalued?

[velo army]

20 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

In what way are the World Cup or Euros being devalued?

Part of the specialness of the world cup is playing teams you wouldn't normally come up against. Playing CONMEBOL teams twice a year makes that a lot less special. Familiarity breeds boredom.

[craigkillie]

2 minutes ago, velo army said:

Part of the specialness of the world cup is playing teams you wouldn't normally come up against. Playing CONMEBOL teams twice a year makes that a lot less special. Familiarity breeds boredom.

European teams always played South American teams in friendlies pre-Nations League anyway though - in what way is this different? The flipside of it is that you are playing other European teams less often - for example we'd have been less likely to have played Israel 7 times in the space of 2 years.

[Gordopolis]

So do the South American sides gain anything in terms of tournament qualification out of this? Or is it - as a previous poster put it - glorified friendlies for them?

[qos_75]

21 hours ago, craigkillie said:

European teams always played South American teams in friendlies pre-Nations League anyway though - in what way is this different? The flipside of it is that you are playing other European teams less often - for example we'd have been less likely to have played Israel 7 times in the space of 2 years.

Equally we might not have qualified for the Euros had South American teams been involved.

I would rather play Israel every couple of weeks,  if it means we qualify for a major tournament. 

[craigkillie]

Equally we might not have qualified for the Euros had South American teams been involved.
I would rather play Israel every couple of weeks,  if it means we qualify for a major tournament. 

Given that there are no plans to include South American teams in League C, I don't see how it would have made a difference.

And even if there were South American teams involved, it's not like Ecuador are going to be taking our spot at the Euros.

[qos_75]

6 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Given that there are no plans to include South American teams in League C, I don't see how it would have made a difference.

And even if there were South American teams involved, it's not like Ecuador are going to be taking our spot at the Euros.

Fair enough.

The point of the Nations League games was to give them a competitive element. If there is nothing at stake for South American teams it defeats the purpose.

[BFTD]

That's miserable if the CONMEBOL sides have nothing to play for. Just a money-making exercise for their confederation. I suppose CONMEBOL would be unlikely to throw some of their limited World Cup places into the Nations League pool if there was a chance that UEFA could just take them all.

It's great to see unusual match-ups at the World Cup - maybe even the best thing about it - but I've no problem with seeing more of it outside of the tournament. Global qualifying tournaments would be quality; imagine us being in a qualifying group with South Korea, Zambia, Bolivia, and Vanuatu. Unfortunately, it's impossible unless somebody invents teleportation, but it's a nice fantasy.

[Bully Wee Villa]

On 18/12/2021 at 21:09, craigkillie said:

The competition is only in its third iteration and has already changed format once. What's the big deal with making another change which will objectively make it more interesting?

Just so you know, "objectively" does not mean "in my opinion".

[Gordopolis]

The notion of playing Peru etc does - at first glance - sound appealing. But if they have no stake in those games other than pride then it seems a bit like added on pish.

[craigkillie]

Just so you know, "objectively" does not mean "in my opinion".

I know what objectively means. Having mire variety makes sporting competitions more interesting.

[AsimButtHitsASix]

On 18/12/2021 at 02:44, welshbairn said:

I remember the days when the likes of Santos were legendary and it would be beyond belief to get a Brazilian or Argentinian player to sign for even a top European club. 

Both countries did, for a while, have fascist governments that made it near impossible for their best players to leave the country to play anywhere else which helped keep the best players at home too. 

[velo army]

On 18/12/2021 at 21:56, craigkillie said:

European teams always played South American teams in friendlies pre-Nations League anyway though - in what way is this different? The flipside of it is that you are playing other European teams less often - for example we'd have been less likely to have played Israel 7 times in the space of 2 years.

We played Costa Rica and Mexico recently. Before that you have to go back a good 10 years to when we played Argentina and off the top of my head I can't recall any other friendlies against CONMEBOL opposition. It is true that we would play European teams less and to those like yourself, that would be a positive, but to me, the specialness of WC games is playing unfamiliar opposition. I don't want to be playing non-European teams to qualify for a world cup. 

[craigkillie]

We aren't playing non-European teams to qualify for the World Cup though. People seem to have got into their head that the Nations League is a bona fide part of World Cup (and Euros) qualifying rather than a standalone tournament which happens to offer a couple of bonus play-off spots.

The current system doesn't have any space for friendlies for us full stop, so it's not surprising we haven't played any in the last few years (we also played Peru on our tour under McLeish).

[Bully Wee Villa]

It is literally part of the qualifying for the World Cup and Euros. Scotland have qualified for one tournament this century, which was via a playoff which they qualified for on the basis of their Nations League performance.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Bully Wee Villa

[BFTD]

26 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

We aren't playing non-European teams to qualify for the World Cup though. People seem to have got into their head that the Nations League is a bona fide part of World Cup (and Euros) qualifying rather than a standalone tournament which happens to offer a couple of bonus play-off spots.

The current system doesn't have any space for friendlies for us full stop, so it's not surprising we haven't played any in the last few years (we also played Peru on our tour under McLeish).

If there were no qualifying spots available, not a single person would give a shiny shit about the Nations League, so I can understand why that's the only thing people discuss about it.

Imagine if, back in the pre-NL days, the SFA announced we'd likely be playing friendlies against Albania and Israel forever, with no real chance of getting a game against one of the glamour sides. Cup of cold sick.

[HibeeJibee]

On 20/12/2021 at 11:34, velo army said:

We played Costa Rica and Mexico recently. Before that you have to go back a good 10 years to when we played Argentina and off the top of my head I can't recall any other friendlies against CONMEBOL opposition. It is true that we would play European teams less and to those like yourself, that would be a positive, but to me, the specialness of WC games is playing unfamiliar opposition. I don't want to be playing non-European teams to qualify for a world cup. 

We played Brazil at Arsenal in 2011 and Peru on tour in 2018. As you've including CONCACAF we've played Canada and USA several times plus Trinidad & Tobago at Easter Road under Vogts.

I'm not a fan of adding them to UEFA tournaments especially if it's all meaningless to them.

Equally it feels sad friendlies are basically gone entirely, outwith week before WCs/Euros start.

Edited December 22, 2021 by HibeeJibee

[velo army]

3 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

We played Brazil at Arsenal in 2011 and Peru on tour in 2018. As you've including CONCACAF we've played Canada and USA several times plus Trinidad & Tobago at Easter Road under Vogts.

So that's five matches against Conmebol countries in 23 years. It doesn't speak to any kind of regularity. We've played USA three times in 20 years and Canada twice. I don't care about the one or two Concacaf members as I didn't reference that at all and, hopefully they won't be included in the nations league either.

My original point in response to the poster was that one of the things that makes the WC special is getting to play teams you wouldn't normally. Having Conmebol countries in the NL would increase the familiarity and would lessen the impact of a World Cup in my opinion.