UEFA has approved the final format and fixture details of the UEFA Nations League, a new tournament for European countries that will essentially see friendlies become a thing of the past.
The new competition will start from 2018 and will feature all the trappings of a domestic league including promotion, relegation and play-offs. There will be a winning team every odd year which, according to UEFA, Â gives “added status and appeal to national team football”. i.e. nobody likes friendlies.
Here are the full details of the new competition. Brace yourselves, the big-wigs at FIFA failed to break it down into layman’s terms. What they gave us was a seemingly endless list of bullet-points, each one more confusing than the last.
• The UEFA Nations League will be played from September to November 2018
• The UEFA EURO 2020 European Qualifiers will be played from March to November 2019
• The subsequent play-offs will be played in March 2020
• The schedule of matches will be played in accordance with the Week of Football concept
Relatively easy to understand so far, right? Check out there explanation for the structure of the competition.
• The UEFA Nations League will be composed of four divisions, with each division divided into four groups of 3–4 teams
• The 54 participating teams are split into four divisions, A–B–C–D, according to their strength
• League A will include the top-ranked teams, League D the lowest-ranked teams
• Leagues A and B will consist of four groups of three teams
• League C will comprise two groups of three teams and two groups of four teams
• League D will be formed by four groups of four teams
• 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)
• The draw will include the necessary conditions to guarantee the sporting fairness and viability of the competition
• In each division, 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
Got that? Well done! Now grapple with the details of the final tournament.
• The four group winners of UEFA Nations League A will play in a knockout format (semi-finals and final) in June 2019 to become the UEFA Nations League champions
• The semi-final fixtures will be decided by draw
• The venue will be appointed by the UEFA Executive Committee
Has your brain turned to mush yet? If not here’s more bullet points.
• The winner and runner-up in each of the ten EURO Qualifiers groups will qualify automatically for the UEFA EURO 2020 final tournament (June 2020)
• The four remaining UEFA EURO 2020 places will be allocated to the winners of play-off matches which will take place in March 2020. Based on results in the UEFA Nations League, 16 teams will take part in the play-offs and are grouped four by four
• The UEFA EURO 2020 draw will be held after the completion of the UEFA Nations League and allow for the four UEFA Nations League Final Four participants to be drawn into groups of five teams
Death by bullet points!
• The four group winners in each league qualify (16 teams) for the play-offs
• If winner(s) are already qualified through the European Qualifiers, the next best ranked team(s) within the league qualify for the play-offs
• Play-off slots are dropped down to a lower league if less than four sides remain available for a play-off qualification
• The play-offs will be played in the form of direct elimination (two semi-finals and a final)
Hat-tip to UEFA
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