Nations League latest

[sbcmfc]

8 hours ago, Toepoke said:

Top 2 in each group qualify for the Euros.

How many teams are in each group? Presuming you could have 2 pot A teams then?

[Clyde1998]

Just now, sbcmfc said:

How many teams are in each group? Presuming you could have 2 pot A teams then?

Five groups of five and five groups of six.

[sbcmfc]

1 hour ago, Ramtastic said:

Can see some foul play happening with this tbh. For example if Portugal win the Nations league A, it'd be in their interest to finish anywhere but first in their qualifying group. They will take the Nations league qualification spot and ensure no other 'A' team has a back up option if they slip up, meaning a bigger chance of one less 'A' team in the finals and a much easier ride for the teams in their group.

I was skeptical about the NL at first, but after watching the drama of England v Croatia & Switzerland v Belgium, I think it has real potential. If it were up to me though, I'd get the NL finals out of the way as early as possible and then form a 'qualifiers' qualifying group from the winners, with the final league positions determining which pot the teams would be in at the finals and no second chances for the other 'big' teams.

The nations league finals are played after the normal qualifiers. When the play offs would’ve been in November 2019 I think.

[Lion Rampant]

4 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

The nations league finals are played after the normal qualifiers. When the play offs would’ve been in November 2019 I think.

The nations league finals are in June 2019. Played over the international dates in that month, the 4 teams that make the NL finals will be guaranteed a 5 team qualifying group to allow them to fit those games in.

I would much prefer Scotland to be in a group of 6.

[sbcmfc]

1 hour ago, Lion Rampant said:

The nations league finals are in June 2019. Played over the international dates in that month, the 4 teams that make the NL finals will be guaranteed a 5 team qualifying group to allow them to fit those games in.

I would much prefer Scotland to be in a group of 6.

Am I being daft?

I think people have overplayed how confusing this is, with professional pundits whose job is to understand it pretending they can’t.

But I thought the play-offs/finals were after “normal” qualification was finished instead of play offs and anybody who had already qualified passed their place in play offs down to the next team.

[Lion Rampant]

5 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

Am I being daft?

I think people have overplayed how confusing this is, with professional pundits whose job is to understand it pretending they can’t.

But I thought the play-offs/finals were after “normal” qualification was finished instead of play offs and anybody who had already qualified passed their place in play offs down to the next team.

The Nations League Finals are in June 2019, the Playoffs are in March 2020.

Conventional qualifying runs from March 2019 to November 2019. After November 2019 the playoffs will be finalised now that all automatic qualifiers are known.

Link below shows the schedule;

https://www.footballseeding.com/international-tournaments/euro-2020/

Edited November 19, 2018 by Lion Rampant

[sbcmfc]

Ah, so pot B-D play offs are after, but pot A play off to decide ultimate winner is during.

How does that work if all 4 qualify?

I thought I’d got my head round this.

[Lion Rampant]

13 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

Ah, so pot B-D play offs are after, but pot A play off to decide ultimate winner is during.

How does that work if all 4 qualify?

I thought I’d got my head round this.

No 🤣

The Nations League Finals are completely seperate to the playoffs. League A get 4 play off places on top of a the Finals tournament. The team that wins the Nations League tourament doesn't get a place at Euro 2020 on the back of it.

Should any League A team not qualify automatically then they would go into a playoff. If England, for example, were to win the Nations League but finish 3rd in their "normal" qualifying group then they would still have to go into the playoffs in March 2020. They would likely be playing a team from the bottom of League B though.

[sbcmfc]

35 minutes ago, Lion Rampant said:

No 🤣

The Nations League Finals are completely seperate to the playoffs. League A get 4 play off places on top of a the Finals tournament. The team that wins the Nations League tourament doesn't get a place at Euro 2020 on the back of it.

Should any League A team not qualify automatically then they would go into a playoff. If England, for example, were to win the Nations League but finish 3rd in their "normal" qualifying group then they would still have to go into the playoffs in March 2020. They would likely be playing a team from the bottom of League B though.

Aha!

So apart from the finals being separate and group A playing play offs as well as “finals” and play offs being in March, not November, I was bang on.

See, it’s not complicated!

[Lion Rampant]

24 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

Aha!

So apart from the finals being separate and group A playing play offs as well as “finals” and play offs being in March, not November, I was bang on.

See, it’s not complicated!

Aye 🤣

[Grim Jim]

54 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

See, it’s not complicated!

I'm quite amazed how someone at UEFA thought this all through.   Other than confusion (and still low crowds in our case) I don't thing we've managed to find a major flaw in the system itself.

Maybe the possibility that a league C team might throw games to get relegated and get an easier play-off next time?   Are Lithuania at it?

[Lion Rampant]

2 minutes ago, Grim Jim said:

I'm quite amazed how someone at UEFA thought this all through.   Other than confusion (and still low crowds in our case) I don't thing we've managed to find a major flaw in the system itself.

Maybe the possibility that a league C team might throw games to get relegated and get an easier play-off next time?   Are Lithuania at it?

Bit of a gamble to do that in this year's NL. No confirmation of the 2020/2021 Nations League offering any playoff places for the 2022 World Cup.

They probably will have to have some sort of tie in with the World Cup qualifying, if only to keep up the interest in it. Could possibly offer up one or two places from it with the two best ranked teams from each League section playing off against each other but that may throw up too many games.

I would imagine that this will have to be decided pretty soon, as the WC Qualifying draw is in July next year and the format will have to be in place before then.

[Fairbairn]

6 minutes ago, Grim Jim said:

I'm quite amazed how someone at UEFA thought this all through.   Other than confusion (and still low crowds in our case) I don't thing we've managed to find a major flaw in the system itself.

Maybe the possibility that a league C team might throw games to get relegated and get an easier play-off next time?   Are Lithuania at it?

That would be a risky game to play though as they results would affect your overall ranking.  By being relegated from the Nations League you'd also likely drop down a pot in the groups for the qualifying stages so you'd be putting all your eggs in basket in terms of hoping to qualify through the NL.

[Fairbairn]

1 minute ago, Lion Rampant said:

Bit of a gamble to do that in this year's NL. No confirmation of the 2020/2021 Nations League offering any playoff places for the 2022 World Cup.

They probably will have to have some sort of tie in with the World Cup qualifying, if only to keep up the interest in it. Could possibly offer up one or two places from it with the two best ranked teams from each League section playing off against each other but that may throw up too many games.

I would imagine that this will have to be decided pretty soon, as the WC Qualifying draw is in July next year and the format will have to be in place before then.

I'm pretty sure NL is only for UEFA tournaments and not FIFA?

[Lion Rampant]

9 minutes ago, Fairbairn said:

I'm pretty sure NL is only for UEFA tournaments and not FIFA?

There seems to be one scheduled for 2020/2021.

https://it.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/executive-committee/news/newsid=2191264.html

Within this article it says;

"In addition, for the 2022 World Cup, the same principles will apply to both the UEFA Nations League and the European Qualifiers, but will be adapted to the number of slots available and final tournament dates."

So that seems to indicate that there will be playoff spots for WC 2022 availble in the next Nations League.

Edited to add; If the 2022 WC is indeed expanded then the additional 3 places that UEFA will get will probably be allocated to the Nations League. They could do the same as they are now but only have one place on offer for League C/D

Edited November 19, 2018 by Lion Rampant

[Fairbairn]

1 hour ago, Lion Rampant said:

There seems to be one scheduled for 2020/2021.

https://it.uefa.com/insideuefa/about-uefa/executive-committee/news/newsid=2191264.html

Within this article it says;

"In addition, for the 2022 World Cup, the same principles will apply to both the UEFA Nations League and the European Qualifiers, but will be adapted to the number of slots available and final tournament dates."

So that seems to indicate that there will be playoff spots for WC 2022 availble in the next Nations League.

Edited to add; If the 2022 WC is indeed expanded then the additional 3 places that UEFA will get will probably be allocated to the Nations League. They could do the same as they are now but only have one place on offer for League C/D

And there was me thinking I understood it!!

That presents a bit of a conundrum for us?  Do we try and win the group and the overall tier this time round so we qualify for the Euros and get promoted to Tier 2 or do we stick where we are and remain in Tier 3 for a crack at the world cup?!

 

[Orraloon]

9 minutes ago, Fairbairn said:

And there was me thinking I understood it!!

That presents a bit of a conundrum for us?  Do we try and win the group and the overall tier this time round so we qualify for the Euros and get promoted to Tier 2 or do we stick where we are and remain in Tier 3 for a crack at the world cup?!

 

No conundrum.

We just need to bear Israel.

Nothing has been decided about the WC qualifying and any links to Nations League yet so no point in trying to second guess anything.

[Lion Rampant]

33 minutes ago, Fairbairn said:

And there was me thinking I understood it!!

That presents a bit of a conundrum for us?  Do we try and win the group and the overall tier this time round so we qualify for the Euros and get promoted to Tier 2 or do we stick where we are and remain in Tier 3 for a crack at the world cup?!

 

I'd probably want to be in League B for the WC nations league as the likliehood of getting a playoff from it, even by way of a filtering down process is a bit higher.

That being said, until the format of the next Nations League is decided and how any potential playoff places are allocated then it's a bit up in the air.

[robbo cop]

Probably been asked before, but do we win the group on goal difference if we draw on or would Israel win it as they would have already beat us and then drawn with us if this was to happen.

[Orraloon]

6 minutes ago, robbo cop said:

Probably been asked before, but do we win the group on goal difference if we draw on or would Israel win it as they would have already beat us and then drawn with us if this was to happen.

We need to win. A draw is good enough for Israel.

[robbo cop]

1 hour ago, Orraloon said:

We need to win. A draw is good enough for Israel.

Thanks, I had read that a draw would do, but had my doubts

[Orraloon]

36 minutes ago, robbo cop said:

Thanks, I had read that a draw would do, but had my doubts

Well, we could possibly still get a play off if we come 2nd in the group but we wouldn't know until after the Euro 2020 qualifiers were done, and we would be up against teams from League B (or maybe A) and we wouldn't have home advantage.

We need to win.

[Toepoke]

O'Neill and Keane quit after Rep of Ireland finish bottom of their group...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/21/martin-oneill-roy-keane-leave-republic-of-ireland-jobs

 

[dan cake]

1 hour ago, Toepoke said:

O'Neill and Keane quit after Rep of Ireland finish bottom of their group...

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/nov/21/martin-oneill-roy-keane-leave-republic-of-ireland-jobs

 

hopefully they'll come in for Lennon

[DoonTheSlope]

2 hours ago, dan cake said:

hopefully they'll come in for Lennon

Then we’ll get lumbered with Wee Chicken Baws. That’s a NAP