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European Nations League


EddardStark

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22 hours ago, Orraloon said:

I think I have managed to answer one of my own questions here. Now, I haven't actually seen this written down anywhere so don't take it as gospel. It's just the only logical way that I can see it working.

They will allocate the play off spots from the bottom up.

Start at League D first which currently looks like :

LEAGUE D (teams to be split into four groups of four)
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, FYR Macedonia, Faroe Islands, Armenia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andorra, Kosovo, San Marino, Gibraltar

The four group winners will play off against each other (none of these teams will qualify automatically, through the EURO 2020 qualifiers, I would think?). One of the above teams will play at EURO 2020.

Then the next set of play off spots will be allocated to the 4 group winners in League C. If one of those teams has already qualified via the EURO 2020 qualifiers (ie Scotland - stop laughing at the back:lol:), then their play off spot will be allocated to the next best team in League C. I'm not sure how that will be decided yet. Probably similar to the system being used to decide the worst runner up in this WC?

Then the 4 group winners in League B contest the League B play off. Again, some of those teams may have already qualified, so their places go to teams further down the League.

The 4 group winners in League A will probably already have qualified. In fact most of the teams in League A should have already qualified. Let's assume that only one of the League A teams hasn't qualified. They will then play off against the next best 3 teams from League B who haven't already qualified or been allocated a play off spot.

So, it looks like teams in League B (and some in League C) might get two goes at getting a play off spot. Either win your group, or be the next best team in line, when teams in the leagues above you have already qualified.

20 teams qualify through the EURO 2020 qualifying groups, then another 16 get into the play offs. We are going to have to be pretty shit, not to be one of them.

 

That was my understanding of it. At least it will make teams take this new tournament seriously knowing you might need it as a backup plan to qualify for the Euros.

I don't think it is a horrible idea but UEFA have done an awful job explaining and selling it.

Not to sure about playing a semi and final playoff match within a couple of days in March.

I'm guessing both the semis and final will be played in the same neutral city to make it easier for fans to attend (this is UEFA so actually there will be no chance)

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11 minutes ago, drew said:

That was my understanding of it. At least it will make teams take this new tournament seriously knowing you might need it as a backup plan to qualify for the Euros.

I don't think it is a horrible idea but UEFA have done an awful job explaining and selling it.

Not to sure about playing a semi and final playoff match within a couple of days in March.

I'm guessing both the semis and final will be played in the same neutral city to make it easier for fans to attend (this is UEFA so actually there will be no chance)

Think the higher ranked team gets to play the semi at home but final is at a neutral venue

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11 minutes ago, drew said:

That was my understanding of it. At least it will make teams take this new tournament seriously knowing you might need it as a backup plan to qualify for the Euros.

I don't think it is a horrible idea but UEFA have done an awful job explaining and selling it.

Not to sure about playing a semi and final playoff match within a couple of days in March.

I'm guessing both the semis and final will be played in the same neutral city to make it easier for fans to attend (this is UEFA so actually there will be no chance)

I think the semi finals will be played at the home of the highest ranked team, and it says that the final will be played at a location agreed in advance.

Surely it would make more sense to play these play offs in the host cities of the actual tournament with the locations agreed beforehand. Say we get into the playoff with Romania, Greece and Serbia this could be played in Amsterdam over a weekend which would be much easier for fans.

Won't happen though.

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5 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

We won't be in the play offs anyway so no need to worry about it.

I think by virtue of our ranking we would have to be very unlucky not to make a playoff. Especially when you consider that the vast majority of the teams above us will make up the 20 automatic spots.

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37 minutes ago, bisland boy said:

Think the higher ranked team gets to play the semi at home but final is at a neutral venue

So you could play on the Thursday and then have to find a way of getting to the Final which could be opposite end of Europe on the Sunday. That is going to see some awful crowd figures.

38 minutes ago, Lion Rampant said:

Surely it would make more sense to play these play offs in the host cities of the actual tournament with the locations agreed beforehand. Say we get into the playoff with Romania, Greece and Serbia this could be played in Amsterdam over a weekend which would be much easier for fans.

That was how I was thinking it should work. Could always make the 2 losers play each other to fill up a friendly date.

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It seems to me that there might be a point in NOT winning your Group. The four Group winners in League C will meet in a play-off, BUT if there are not enough to fill the League B play-offs, then they will be filled by the top 4 teams from League C. So Scotland could win their Group and end up having to play in a play-off versus League B teams. If we are second in our Group and a League C winner has to move up to League B play-off, then we may fill the spot and a much easier play-off.

This could encourage teams to throw matches.

Edited by Jonathan
typo
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4 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

It seems to me that there might be a point in NOT winning your Group. The four Group winners in League C will meet in a play-off, BUT if there are not enough to fill the League B play-offs, then they will be filled by the top 4 teams from League C. So Scotland could win their Group and end up having to play in a play-off versus League B teams. If we are second in our Group and a League C winner has to move up to League B play-off, then we may fill the spot and a much easier play-off.

This could encourage teams to throw matches.

Don't think anyone can afford to throw matches as you won't know if you're guaranteed a playoff by finishing 2nd till the proper qualifiers are finished and they don't start till the nations league ends.

59 minutes ago, bisland boy said:

Think the higher ranked team gets to play the semi at home but final is at a neutral venue

Just read on the BBC for the actual nations league final for the top league will be played in one nation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41580638

"The knockout Nations League Finals (semi-finals, third-place match and final) will be hosted by one of the four countries, appointed by the Uefa Executive Committee in December 2018"

I wonder if they will do the same for the playoffs.

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I disagree with those saying treat them as friendlies, no chance. Play those games to win and try and secure a play off spot, then in the final league play tactically to be in the top two in our group to secure automatic qualification. I say tactically because If I were manager, I would be tracking our goal difference no way we can suffer heavy 3 nil losses, and not being aggresive against low ranking teams. Maybe even knowing we have a play off spot in the bank and having less pressure, if we found ourselves in a final match we dont sit back and wait for the inevitable. 

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3 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

It seems to me that there might be a point in NOT winning your Group. The four Group winners in League C will meet in a play-off, BUT if there are not enough to fill the League B play-offs, then they willed be filled by the top 4 teams from League C. So Scotland could win their Group and end up having to play in a play-off versus League B teams. If we are second in our Group and a League C winner has to move up to League B play-off, then we may fill the spot and a much easier play-off.

This could encourage teams to throw matches.

I don't think that is how it is going to work, but I haven't seen that confirmed yet.

I think that if they need teams to fill up the League B play off spots, they will take teams from lower down League C AFTER the League C play off spots have been filled. IMO That would be the logical way to do it.

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This is far too complex, what is the advantage of being in the top league playing against good sides. Does the top league get more play off spots. Do we get a play off spot in our league and if so does that mean they are doing away with play off spots in the qualifying group assuming there is qualifying groups. By uefa and fifa are doing their best to mess up the game we love. 

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6 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Surely a simpler option would of been to make the qualifying groups larger and therefore increase the games which would replace the meaningless friendlies. You could have potentially 4 to 5 teams qualifying from each group with one play off spot in each group.

I think one of the problems with Euro qualifying at the moment is half your group end up qualifying or minimum playoffs. As a result a few teams know they have qualified with 3 or 4 more games spare. When it was 1st through and 2nd in playoff you would have less meaningless games at the top end. Expanding the size of groups doesn't resolve that problem

I'm sure the original plan when they increased Euros to 24 teams was to have qualifying groups as they were but with only 13 best + host going through. The remaining 10 spots were made up from 40 sides playing in a knockout seeded by performance in the qualifying groups. The idea didn't take off and doesn't resolve the issue of replacing friendly dates with competitive matches so they've come up with this nations league instead.

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1 hour ago, scot scotland scottish said:

Don't worry about it - you can be sure we'll find a way of not qualifying

Don't doubt it for a second :lol:

I still maintain that we'll be very unlucky to not make it to a playoff at least. There will be 20 automatic qualifiers and 16 into a playoff, doesn't lave many teams without one or the other.

Still not 100% sure how the playoff places will be dropped down depending on how many of the automatic qualifiers were guaranteed a playoff place.

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1 hour ago, Orraloon said:

I don't think that is how it is going to work, but I haven't seen that confirmed yet.

I think that if they need teams to fill up the League B play off spots, they will take teams from lower down League C AFTER the League C play off spots have been filled. IMO That would be the logical way to do it.

That would make sense.

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On 09/10/2017 at 3:10 PM, iainmac1 said:

We could organise a heap of friendlies against low ranked teams and throw them to drop down the rankings and get into League D. Then win it with ease and qualify for the Euros. 

If you are on the cusp of Leagues C and D it would be highly advantageous to be in D from a qualifying perspective?

Lithuania tried that and failed. It's not as easy as you'd think to drop that low. 

The best chance of qualifying is still through the group stages. 

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23 minutes ago, PASTA Mick said:

Lithuania tried that and failed. It's not as easy as you'd think to drop that low. 

The best chance of qualifying is still through the group stages. 

Do friendlies count in the UEFA rankings? The reason I ask is I'm sure I saw a table that was showing Russia as having not accrued any points in this "cycle".

The best way for them to have dropped down would be to have lost a few more matches in our group. Like at Hampden for example or to have just lost v Malta

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2 minutes ago, bookerman said:

Anyone know if the National League is going to replace future seedings for Euro and world cup qualifying ?

If so we better take this serousely or before you know it we could be falling down the pots real fast.

I wouldn't think so. For starters the WC qualifiers will always be seeded based on the FIFA rankings at FIFA's insistance and I would imagine that the Euro Qualifiers will continue to be based on the UEFA ranking system.

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On 08/10/2017 at 11:57 PM, EddardStark said:

Not sure how this new format in terms of friendlies relates to the qualification process of Euro 2020 but I am led to believe the winners of each League get a play off place. Proper qualification for Euro 2020 does not start until March 2019. 

LEAGUE C (teams to be split into one group of three, and three groups of four)
Romania, Scotland, Hungary, Slovenia, Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, Norway, Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania

 

 

 

Albania, Serbia and Israel

I've always wanted to visit these places

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34 minutes ago, Lion Rampant said:

Do friendlies count in the UEFA rankings? The reason I ask is I'm sure I saw a table that was showing Russia as having not accrued any points in this "cycle".

The best way for them to have dropped down would be to have lost a few more matches in our group. Like at Hampden for example or to have just lost v Malta

Friendlies do count but you don't get many points for them. 

I don't think they were planning on dropping down when they played at Hampden but backing them not to beat Malta last week was buying money. 

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