It could all end in tiers
IF ENGLAND want some clarity on what international football’s newest competition could mean to them, they need only look to the recent past.
A successful Nations League campaign in the autumn would put them in the semi-finals of a senior tournament at last, though effectively that would mean beating Spain – the last team they beat to get that far in a competition, at Euro 96.
The counterpoint of that though, is that they could also stand on the brink of ignominy.
A ‘Wally with the Brolly’ style mess-up against Croatia, as Steve McClaren suffered in 2007, and suddenly England’s bold new revolution under Gareth Southgate could find itself relegated to the second tier of European football.
Those who felt the Nations League was too Mickey Mouse to capture the public imagination had perhaps lost sight of the devilment of the competition amidst the endless stream of ludicrous details.
The day when Germany, France and Holland were banded together in a ‘Group of Death’ was the Nations League’s coming of age as a serious competition.
One of those giants of the world game will be among four teams competing to become the inaugural winners of the competition in June 2019. One of them will be in League B when the second running begins in September 2020.
In the meantime, where teams finish will also affect their seedings for the more traditional qualification process for Euro 2020, fought out between March and November next year, as FIFA rankings take more of a back seat going forward.
Promotion, relegation, qualification, confusion. There will certainly be plenty of elements of all of those over the coming months. England start their campaign with the Wembley showdown against Spain on September 8, a match
ENGLAND’S PACKED INTERNATIONAL SCHEDULE
(6 match days in three pairs). Nations League. Teams play each other home and away. Groups with only three teams have two international dates clear for friendlies. 2020 qualifying, with top two from the 10 groups reaching the finals. Winners of the four Nations League A groups will be put in five-team groups, freeing up the two match dates in June.
(2 match days). The inaugural Nations League finals will be contested while Euro 2020 qualification continues elsewhere. Top teams in Nations that will go a long way towards shaping the entire process. The immediate benefit is that, with the English season getting under way earlier than their Spanish counterparts, this might be the best time to play them.
The crunch will come a month later when England go to Croatia and Spain before the November 18 return against the Croatians with Spain having completed their matches. League A contest one-off semi-finals, followed by a thirdplace play-off and final.
(2 match days). The top four teams in leagues A to D who have not already qualified for the Euros through the conventional route will play off in a similar manner to the Nations League finals. The four play-off winners will complete Ominously that clash comes just three days before the 11th anniversary of the infamous night Croatia stopped England reaching Euro 2008 with a 3-2 win at rain-swept Wembley. At a slightly different level, Wales and the Republic of Ireland were handed a much more recent history lesson in League B. The latter pipped the former, now managed by Ryan Giggs, to the 2018 World Cup play-off places, only to lose 5-1 on aggregate, 12 venues to host Euro 2020 finals, culminating in semi-finals and final at Wembley Stadium. (6 match days in three pairs). Nations League 2021 gets under way and the two-year cycle repeats around World Cup 2022 qualifying. to the third member Group 4, Denmark.
The consequences are no less forgiving. The best of those three will be among the top seeds come the next round of traditional qualifying; the worst would drop down to the level at which Scotland now find themselves.
The nation’s football team is currently rudderless after the sacking of Gordon Strachan.
But by being in League C, Scotland only have to finish top of a group containing Albania, who they have never met, and Israel, who they have always beaten, to be in a four-way play-off for a Euro 2020 berth.
There they will face other teams from League C not good enough to reach the finals on the merit of their qualification performance. of