Pretty much all football fans around the globe detest international breaks, meaningless friendlies disturbing the flow of league calendars and schedules. However, starting this year, UEFA has come up with an unhackneyed, ambitious project to make international matches interesting again – the UEFA Nations League.
What is the UEFA Nations League?
The UEFA Nations League is a new international football tournament. Participating teams will go up against other European nations in a league format for a chance to qualify for the European Championships, and also to compete in the Final Four summer showpiece in 2019, where the winner will be crowned the Nations League champion.
In a bid to improve the quality of international football and reduce the number of friendlies, UEFA has devised this new format to add excitement and competition to clashes of different national football teams.
Format and Working:
There are 55 European nations participating in the inaugural edition of the UNL. They have been divided into 4 leagues based on their UEFA rankings at the end of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, which are again split into 4 groups, containing 3 or 4 teams each. Each team plays every other team in the same group in a round robin format.
Within each league, the four topmost teams will be promoted at the end of the year, while the four lowermost teams will be relegated to lower leagues. They will then play at their new level in the next cycle of the competition, which starts in 2020.
The winners of the four groups in League A will qualify for the Final Four competition, to be held in June 2019.The Final Four tournament will occur in odd years, meaning that in years when there isn’t a World Cup or European Championship, there will be a Nations League winner.
Benefits:
UEFA believes that the Nations League will provide a platform for more competitive matches for teams as well as a dedicated calendar and structure for national team football. Also, teams play other teams of similar pedigree, so the possibility of one sided games is reduced substantially.
An added benefit of the UNL is a backdoor entry into the European Championships. Teams with lower FIFA rankings but displaying good performances in the UNL also have a chance of qualifying for Europe.
Many players and managers have expressed concern over the scheduling of the UNL matches as the European leagues’ seasons themselves are extremely taxing, and appending more competitive games could take its toll on any player’s physical state.
However, UEFA is confident that their newest venture will be a resounding success. Arriving right at the tail of an exhilarating World Cup, and given the quality of football on display, the UEFA Nations League should be a treat to watch for spectators and it has all the potential to develop into a tournament whose dates the fans start circling in their calendars, pretty soon.