Sorry, Mr Klopp, but it looks like you got this one completely wrong
JUST last month, Jurgen Klopp spoke for many when he trained his guns on UEFA’s new Nations League tournament. ‘It is,’ argued the Liverpool manager, ‘the most senseless competition in the world of football.’
But by the time the first-ever Nations League group stage had reached a conclusion this week, moans about the competition’s complex, baffling format had stopped.
Indeed, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that European football’s much-criticised governing body have actually stumbled upon a winning formula. Witness Scotland’s nail-biting finish at Hampden as Allan McGregor’s late save from Tomer Hemed secured a thrilling 3-2 win over Israel to top Group C1.
During the course of an often chaotic four-game campaign, Alex McLeish has gone from horror in Haifa to the brink of the Promised Land, with a play-off for Euro 2020 now in the bank.
Hat-trick hero James Forrest, scorer of five in his last two games, became the first Celtic player since Jimmy Quinn in 1908 to notch a treble for Scotland.
But there was intrigue and drama all across the continent.
Holland’s 2-0 home victory over world champions France last Friday effectively relegated Germany to League B, while Virgil Van Dijk’s late equaliser against Joachim Low’s side on Monday saw the Dutch secure a place in next year’s Nations League Finals at the expense of the French.
There was also England’s come-from-behind win over World Cup finalists Croatia as Gareth Southgate’s side went from staring at relegation into the second tier to topping Group A4.
England will now play in the finals next June with the Dutch, Portugal and Switzerland, who pipped Belgium in Group A2 thanks to a 5-2 final-game win.
The basic premise of the Nations League is that the 55 European nations are split into four leagues based on their UEFA ranking.
There is promotion and relegation between the leagues with the additional carrot of potential Euro 2020 qualification.
The traditional qualifiers, held from March to November 2019, make up 20 of the 24 finalists.
The remaining four spots will be decided by play-offs between the top-ranked teams from the four leagues who have not already qualified via the usual route.
The plan was to shake up international football by replacing meaningless friendlies with meaningful competitive matches.
And by that yardstick the Nations League has been a real success, throwing up some fascinating storylines along the way.
The rise of England under Southgate has continued, with the Three Lions topping a group featuring Spain and Croatia to give them a shot at their first silverware since 1966.
Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands look on their way back after missing out on Russia 2018.
After a poor World Cup, German woes continued, winless in their four games. France remain often unimpressive after their World Cup triumph. Pointless and rooted to the foot of Group A2 behind Switzerland and Belgium, Iceland’s remarkable rise now appears to have transformed into an inexorable tailspin. In League B, BosniaHerzegovina will take their place among Europe’s elite after topping their group ahead of Austria and Northern Ireland. And in a fall from glory following past heroics at Euro 2016, Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland finished pointless in Group B3. The Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, earned just two points from Group B4, behind Denmark and Wales. That pitiful effort cost Ireland boss Martin O’Neill and sidekick Roy Keane their jobs. Contrast all of that to the mundanity of international friendlies, with matches ruined by a raft of substitutions. ‘I think the Nations League is the right principle,’ said former Manchester United and England right-back Gary Neville.
‘The jump in atmosphere from the recent USA friendly to the match against Croatia was enormous. The Spain game at Wembley was fantastic too.
‘We’re critical of associations for creating meaningless tournaments, but this seems to be something that might work.’
Ukraine football chief Andriy Pavelko described the Nations League as ‘a flawless idea from UEFA. It’s excellent — official matches that bring points, the pleasure of the fans and the opportunity to get to the Euros’.
Down in League D, Kosovo won promotion along with Belarus, Macedonia and Georgia.
In March, it will be five years since Kosovo’s first official match, against Haiti. They were only admitted into UEFA in 2016.
Now they and the other three group winners have play-off spots and harbour hopes of reaching Euro 2020; a feat surely beyond them in regular qualifying.
Georgian Football Federation president Levan Kobiashvili insisted the Nations League has benefited the whole country.
‘It’s improved our selfconfidence,’ he said. ‘We’re more positive, including the atmosphere among the fans and society. We proved there was, is and will be football in our country.’
Even for nations who did not top their group, matches against similar opponents proved more enjoyable than ritual humiliations against bigger rivals.
There were jubilant scenes in Gibraltar when they picked up their first-ever competitive win, against Armenia. Another soon followed against Liechtenstein.
Aleksander Ceferin, the head of UEFA, insists the competition is a hit across nations of all sizes.
‘The Nations League was — and is — even more successful than we thought,’ said Ceferin. ‘We had complaints from the big football countries: “We play with small countries, we don’t play amongst each other”, and complaints from small ones: “We never win”.
‘The Nations League is a road to Euro 2020, which is great for the Group D countries. It was almost impossible for them before.’
Klopp may need to re-evaluate his views on the tournament after watching his centre-back Van Dijk star against Germany and left-back Andy Robertson captain Scotland to winning their group.
But surely most observers would agree ‘the most senseless competition in world football’ looks a very wise move indeed by UEFA.