Chris G Whyte
Private Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2008
Right, so. The Nations League.
I'm not going to lie, to start with I couldn't make head nor fucking tails of it. It just seemed like an extraordinarily complicated way of shovelling more international matches into busy calendars that club teams are already loathe to let their players play in. But, after a while, I think I've finally managed to figure out how it works. Essentially, it's designed to do two things at the root:
1) Provide competitive matches for teams that otherwise struggle to find them.
2) Provide an alternative route for nations to get into the European Championships.
So, let's look at Scotland.
Our "league" is league C, and we're in the pot with Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Our league, just like A, B and D will then be split into four groups (one of three, three of four) that, for argument's sake, will look like this:
Albania - Bulgaria - Cyprus - Estonia
Finland - Greece - Hungary - Israel
Lithuania - Montenegro - Norway - Romania
Scotland - Serbia - Slovenia
Each group plays home and away "double-headers", which means Scotland will play Serbia and Slovenia twice and points racked up as normal. Let's say that all four groups see the following final rank:
Bulgaria - Estonia - Albania - Cyprus
Hungary - Greece - Finland - Israel
Norway - Montenegro - Lithuania - Romania
Scotland - Serbia - Slovenia
As far as the league is concerned, Bulgaria/Hungary/Norway/Scotland have been "promoted" and, in two years time (the tournament is every two years), will play in league B. Cyprus/Israel/Romania/Slovenia will be "relegated", and play in league D. Were I a betting man, I'd suggest that Scotland are likely to flit between league B and C barring any unforeseen exigencies.
But what Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway and Scotland will also do, one tournament in two or every four years, is go into a playoff against each other to decide the league C winner. In the semi finals Scotland go on to beat Norway, while Bulgaria beat Hungary, making a final and a (wholly pointless) third placed match from the four nations.
In the final, Scotland defeat Bulgaria and win league C. Hooray! As if.
Scotland have now, in a Euro qualifying period, qualified for the tournament finals. The playoff winners from leagues A, B and D will have qualified likewise, thus making up four of the twenty four tournament final positions. The other twenty teams are comprised of those who won their traditional qualifying group, or came second in it. There will be no playoffs from those groups.
What we get with this sytem is "tournament" football every two years, which means every summer has it; World Cup, Nations League, European Championship, Nations League, ad infinitum. On the years prior to the Euros it provides a chance to qualify, while the year prior to the World Cup will only see playoffs from League A in order to determine the winner of the Nations League (this will still happen in Euro years, obviously).
The one thing I CANNOT figure out, is what happens to the teams that qualify for the Euros via the traditional route. If the best team is Germany, which isn't a stretch, and they qualify from their normal group as we'd expect... What happens if they also then go on to win the Nations League? What if their league A final opponents, let's say Spain, have also already qualified?
Answers on a postcard.
I'm not going to lie, to start with I couldn't make head nor fucking tails of it. It just seemed like an extraordinarily complicated way of shovelling more international matches into busy calendars that club teams are already loathe to let their players play in. But, after a while, I think I've finally managed to figure out how it works. Essentially, it's designed to do two things at the root:
1) Provide competitive matches for teams that otherwise struggle to find them.
2) Provide an alternative route for nations to get into the European Championships.
So, let's look at Scotland.
Our "league" is league C, and we're in the pot with Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Our league, just like A, B and D will then be split into four groups (one of three, three of four) that, for argument's sake, will look like this:
Albania - Bulgaria - Cyprus - Estonia
Finland - Greece - Hungary - Israel
Lithuania - Montenegro - Norway - Romania
Scotland - Serbia - Slovenia
Each group plays home and away "double-headers", which means Scotland will play Serbia and Slovenia twice and points racked up as normal. Let's say that all four groups see the following final rank:
Bulgaria - Estonia - Albania - Cyprus
Hungary - Greece - Finland - Israel
Norway - Montenegro - Lithuania - Romania
Scotland - Serbia - Slovenia
As far as the league is concerned, Bulgaria/Hungary/Norway/Scotland have been "promoted" and, in two years time (the tournament is every two years), will play in league B. Cyprus/Israel/Romania/Slovenia will be "relegated", and play in league D. Were I a betting man, I'd suggest that Scotland are likely to flit between league B and C barring any unforeseen exigencies.
But what Bulgaria, Hungary, Norway and Scotland will also do, one tournament in two or every four years, is go into a playoff against each other to decide the league C winner. In the semi finals Scotland go on to beat Norway, while Bulgaria beat Hungary, making a final and a (wholly pointless) third placed match from the four nations.
In the final, Scotland defeat Bulgaria and win league C. Hooray! As if.
Scotland have now, in a Euro qualifying period, qualified for the tournament finals. The playoff winners from leagues A, B and D will have qualified likewise, thus making up four of the twenty four tournament final positions. The other twenty teams are comprised of those who won their traditional qualifying group, or came second in it. There will be no playoffs from those groups.
What we get with this sytem is "tournament" football every two years, which means every summer has it; World Cup, Nations League, European Championship, Nations League, ad infinitum. On the years prior to the Euros it provides a chance to qualify, while the year prior to the World Cup will only see playoffs from League A in order to determine the winner of the Nations League (this will still happen in Euro years, obviously).
The one thing I CANNOT figure out, is what happens to the teams that qualify for the Euros via the traditional route. If the best team is Germany, which isn't a stretch, and they qualify from their normal group as we'd expect... What happens if they also then go on to win the Nations League? What if their league A final opponents, let's say Spain, have also already qualified?
Answers on a postcard.
