THE NATIONS LEAGUE

So UEFA have devised a new competition called the Nations League to cut down on the multitude of meaningless friendlies, the draw took place last Wednesday in Lausanne. The plan is to pitch teams of a similar standard (dependent on their UEFA ranking) up against each other, in four different ‘Leagues’ A, B, C and D. There will be promotion and relegation as well as in the summer of 2019, playoffs to see who will be crowned champions. Opportunity will even be there for teams who do not qualify for Euro 2020 directly via the normal qualification process to actually get a place via a playoff scenario.

ENGLAND’S FATE SET

England, who are in League A as one of the top 12 nations in Europe, were drawn to face Spain and Croatia, home and away, a difficult draw with no gimme games, but that is how the competition is being seen, with as mentioned teams of a similar standard facing off against each other. England open their campaign with a mouth watering clash against Spain at Wembley, they will then travel to Croatia and Spain for their away fixtures before they fiinsh at home to the Croats.

ALL MATCHES TO MEAN SOMETHING

To be fair to the UEFA bods those matches are much more mouthwatering than some of the qualifiers of a top ranked nation against a middle to lower tier rating, which tends to see a match of attack versus defence. They want these matches to have a real competitive edge, another one of the groups in League A pits Germany, Netherlands and France together which mean games that will not be taken lightly.

PROBLEMS MAY ARISE

My main issue with it is how it will be seen by players and managers. Are head coaches really going to always play their best possible teams, like they would in a qualification competition or tournament play. Imagine if a club manager had a player with a slight knock, would the international manager really pick him for a game in this competition. Yes there is the possibly of silverware at the end of it, but lets be honest the only two trophies that a European international footballer wants to win are the World Cup or the European Championships, not the Nations League.

CONFERDATIONS CUP MARK 2?

For me the match ups show some great games to come at all levels, with the teams of a similar standard in each league, it is likely we shall see better matches, however I can also see some experimental sides being fielded across all the Leagues A to D. I see this competition being treated like the Confederation Cup, the pre World Cup test tournament, where it is competitive but managers do not tend to pick the strongest possible squad.

LETS SEE HOW IT GOES

Is the Nations League a good idea? It does have its merits, but if UEFA think this is going to make people watch and engage with international football regularly outside of qualification and tournaments, they may well be mistaken. Maybe it is just a money making exercise for the governing body of European football as there will be plenty of commercial opportunities to be had. Time will tell I suppose.

Let me know what you think

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