UEFA have announced a new Nations League to replace international friendlies this week. The new “third tier” tournament is set to happen after the World Cup in 2018 and the new European tournament is to take place biennially in odd-number years.
The format is quite simple despite criticism from some sectors. The 54 member associations will be split into four divisions, with the best teams facing each other at the top to the worst teams facing each other in the bottom group, with a promotion/relegation format involved. There will also be a “final four” tournament and winners of the lower divisions could be granted entry to one of the twenty four slots available at the European Championships.
The new tournament, which is yet to have an official title (at the time of writing), seems like an exciting idea full of potential but there are also a few issues to iron out too.
The idea of more competitive international football is a good thing as throw-away friendlies are pretty common in the modern game. Club managers at all levels of the game don’t want to risk their star players for the sake of a pointless friendly against a team either inferior or superior to that player’s nation.
It also means that there will be more money and more excitement for the fans. I’ve seen interest deteriorate in England when it comes to the international games, including the qualifying stages for the World Cup. There’s less television revenue to be had and the numbers attending games at Wembley Stadium are seemingly falling.
An example of this is when the FA decided to give more seats to away fans in a qualifier against Poland last year, because the interest in that game was minimal despite the fact that England’s ability to qualify comprehensively for the World Cup depended on it. It says a lot when NFL games sell faster than the “real” football here in England.
And therefore one could be forgiven to automatically conclude that the game needs a competitive boost. Why would England fans want to see pointless friendlies against the likes of Denmark and Austria? Do not get me wrong, mid-level teams like Denmark and Austria are decent competition, but the English would love a challenge of taking on the European elite.
Pitching two elite teams against each other could be a significant learning curve for both sides—learning how both teams operate and how they can improve their performances.
Yet this is where the biggest problem lies. As great as competitive football is, there is one huge underlying issue with the structure of the tournament. It means that the European elite will remain as the European elite whilst the chance for lesser footballing nations will struggle to improve and this can be damaging to UEFA as a whole when it comes to the international game.
A good second tier side like Sweden, who can compete with Europe’s best on their day, be prevented from ever improving if they just miss out on reaching the top division. Their chances are limited and their ranking will merely stagnate—especially when FIFA insist on Europe have a disproportionate amount of teams in the World Cup too.
The format for the new tournament also means that even the elite level nations could miss out on playing high ranking teams from different continents. Whilst international friendlies are the toilet paper of football (lucrative pre-season friendlies are what’s on the toilet paper), there could be quite a lot to gain from how football is played across the world, especially in South America. England’s friendly against Chile last year taught them that valuable lesson.
Overall, the “Nations League” does seem to be a good idea on paper. However there are some footballing issues that need to be ironed out and the phasing out of international friendlies could be very damaging for football in Europe. If UEFA could somehow strike a balance between the two then we could see a significant increase of interest in a dying part of the beautiful game.
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