UEFA Nations League: Two sides of the same coin

Starting this week, a series of friendly matches will take place involving European national teams. This familiar series of international friendlies will be tested in a larger-scale tournament format called the UEFA Nations League. The meaningless friendly matches will be officially abolished.

Combining multiple elements

Accordingly, the UEFA Nations League is a tournament that brings together 55 UEFA member national teams. These 55 teams are divided into four leagues (League A, League B, League C, League D) in order from strongest to weakest.

UEFA divides the leagues into four groups, and the teams play a round-robin format to determine the group winners who advance to the semi-finals, followed by the final to compete for the championship.

Germany is in League A Group 1 along with France and the Netherlands. Photo: Internet

However, more importantly, the top four teams in the lower divisions will be promoted to the 2020/2021 season, while the bottom four teams will be relegated. A friendly tournament with promotion and relegation is truly a novel idea; only UEFA could have conceived of it.

More importantly, each league (League A, League B, League C, League D) will have one additional spot in EURO 2020. Accordingly, the top four teams in each league will compete in a play-off semi-final and final to secure a spot in EURO 2020. The team that qualified through the main qualifying rounds will be replaced by the next best-performing team.

This brilliant proposal, besides being a matter of national football honor, also provides a "backdoor" for any team that stumbles. Thus, Euro 2020 will still have its qualifying rounds as usual. However, the Euro 2020 qualifying matches will only award 20 out of 24 tickets to the finals. The remaining 4 tickets will be awarded through the Nations League.

In League A, Group 1 consists of France, Germany, and the Netherlands; Group 2 consists of Belgium, Iceland, and Switzerland; Group 3 consists of Italy, Poland, and Portugal; and Group 4 consists of Croatia, England, and Spain. Even before the tournament begins, the UEFA Nations League holds significant importance for any European national team, regardless of strength.

UEFA has created a more attractive tournament by pairing teams of similar caliber, reducing the boredom caused by teams with vastly different skill levels.

Matches like Spain's 11-0 victory over Liechtenstein are unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, for fans, even though they are just friendly matches, there will certainly be exciting games in League A. Of course, the "television rights" issue is always something UEFA cannot ignore.

Left side

The downside is that mid-level teams like Scotland, Greece, Serbia, Türkiye, etc., will no longer have many opportunities to compete against strong opponents to improve their skills. Perhaps their only option is to invite teams from South America or other continents to improve their players' abilities.

Not to mention that teams in Group D, who had virtually no chance of reaching the finals under the old format, now have a great opportunity. They only need to finish first in their group to have a chance to advance to the next round and compete with teams from the groups above.

Results of the draw for the 2018 Nations League group stage. Photo: Internet

Of course, the quality of the teams that qualify through the "lucky draw" will reduce the excitement of the Euro finals. The fact that France, Germany, Spain, etc., have met so many times makes their matches less appealing and less anticipated by fans.

One more thing is certain: the big European clubs aren't thrilled about this tournament either. The intense nature of Nations League friendly matches easily leads to player injuries. This could negatively impact the interests of the big clubs. But that's UEFA for you; they always come up with all sorts of tricks on the pitch.