The UEFA Nations League gets underway this week, with virtually
all of the games available to view on Sky starting on Thursday and going
through until Tuesday, with some tasty looking matches such as Germany vs
France and Wales vs Ireland - but what exactly is it?
The Nations League Concept
On one level, the idea behind it is simply a more
competitive series of matches (although Scotland vs Belgium on Friday is just an
old-school friendly, even if the prices don’t reflect that), but it also serves
as a path to the European Championships in 2020. Only four of the 55 nations
competing though will get through via that method (see below).
There are actually four separate leagues, based on UEFA
coefficients (not FIFA ranking) which throws up some quirks like the Netherlands
(who haven’t qualified for the last two major tournaments) in League A and
Serbia (in the last World Cup) in League C. There are four groups within each league
consisting of either three or four teams who play each other home and away.
The Nations League Format
Group matches last until November 20th. The
winner of each group is “promoted” to the league above and the bottom team “relegated”
for the next round of matches in two years’ time. The winners of the four
groups in League A qualify directly for a pretty pointless Nations League play-off
in June 2019. There may or may not be a trophy involved.
European Championships Qualifying
“Normal” qualifying for the Euros will begin in March 2019
with ten groups of five or six teams, drawn after the Nations League groups are
complete with seeding based on the ranking from these. The top two from each of
these will qualify. As there is no host nation (the finals matches are spread
over 13 different countries) then no team qualifies automatically.
Now for the interesting bit (especially for the – ahem –
lesser nations): the four groups winners in
each Nations League will play-off in semi-finals and a final for the right
to qualify directly for the 2020 tournament. Yes, one team from the each of the
leagues including the lowest-ranked one is guaranteed to qualify. Azerbaijan
will be the favourites for this honour. If any of the Nations League winners
have already qualified through the traditional method, then the next best
placed team will go through to the play-off. Which may not even be the
runners-up if they have also qualified, which may well be the case in League A.
In fact, all of League A could qualify in which case League B teams would “move
up” for play-off purposes.
The leagues and groups are as follows, remember one team
from each league will qualify.
Scotland, for example, assuming they don’t make it through the main qualifying
and finish above Israel and Iceland in Group 1 in League C, would play-off
against the other three group1 winners eg Greece, Slovenia and Romania. Even McLeish
must have a chance of that surely? Well, unless the tax man jails him first.
League A
Group 1: Germany, France, Netherlands
Group 2: Belgium, Switzerland, Iceland
Group 3: Portugal, Italy, Poland
Group 4: Spain, England, Croatia
League B
Group 1: Slovakia, Ukraine, Czech Republic
Group 2: Russia, Sweden, Turkey
Group 3: Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Northern Ireland
Group 4: Wales, Republic of Ireland, Denmark
League C
Group 1: Scotland,
Albania, Israel
Group 2: Hungary,
Greece, Finland, Estonia
Group 3: Slovenia,
Norway, Bulgaria, Cyprus
Group 4: Romania,
Serbia, Montenegro, Lithuania
League D
Group 1: Georgia,
Latvia, Kazakhstan, Andorra
Group 2: Belarus,
Luxembourg, Moldova, San Marino
Group 3: Azerbaijan,
Faroe Islands, Malta, Kosovo
Group 4: FYR
Macedonia, Armenia, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar
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