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The UEFA Nations League is a tournament introduced by Europe’s premier football governing body in a bid to improve competition among its member states and reduce the number of dead rubber friendlies played during FIFA’s international break.
The tournament saw UEFA split its 53 member nations into four groups based on their FIFA ranking, with the idea being for countries with similar strengths to face one another, and rewarded with promotion and relegations, as well as qualification for EURO 2020 through the tournament.
The Nations League is a bit complicated, and as expected, met with a lot of resistance, with a lot of people including Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp questioning its significance and brandishing the tournament senseless.
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The Nations League resumed during the current window, with the first set of matches being played during the last FIFA break, and two matches in, it is still hard to see what the overall impact of the tournament is. Here are three reasons why the UEFA Nations League why Klopp is right that the Nations League is senseless
#3 It forces national managers into using full strength teams, increasing chances of injury for players
The ‘competitive’ nature of the Nations League means countries attach more importance to it than for normal friendly matches. This extra pressure to win these matches pits international coaches in a situation where they have to field their best players, regardless of club duties more than would have been the case if they had been just friendly matches.
International windows offers the opportunity for friendly matches to try out different hitherto untested players on the national scene, and work out ways to blend them in with the more established internationals.
However, the advent of the Nations League has put paid to such practises, as coaches prefer to use their tested and trusted names to prosecute the matches.
This has adverse effects on the clubs, as most of their major players are forced to play in glorified friendly matches which have been termed 'competitive', thereby increasing their chances of sustaining an injury as was the case with Luke Shaw who got injured in the Nations League clash with Spain.
The average top level footballer already plays on average of 55-60 competitive fixtures for club and country in a football season over nine gruelling and long months, and to increase pressure on their already battered body in the name of the Nations League is insensitive on the part of UEFA. This undue pressure on national coaches is what led Jurgen Klopp to make those statements which was backed by Dejan Lovren, and it is hard to argue against his position.
#2 Despite UEFA’s best efforts, the matches still have the feel of friendlies
As stated earlier, UEFA has 53 registered Football Associations, and the varying degrees of organization of football in these countries means that there is a vast difference in the strengths of the various teams, with those with historical footballing pedigree at the top being much stronger than the ones without much pedigree.
Stronger countries such as Spain, England, France and Germany usually ghost through qualifiers for major tournaments by thumping the smaller teams, as UEFA’s system of grouping by seeding ensures the big boys avoid one another.
In previous settings, the only contact the big teams had with the smaller teams was in qualification, and when the time for warm-ups for major tournaments arrived, tune-up friendlies were usually arranged with countries of similar strength, as the smaller nations couldn’t offer the competition sought to get their players in top gear for major tournaments.
As it is with the Nations League, big teams face off with one another, while medium strength teams face themselves, same with the smallest nations.
This current scenario offers not much difference, as all nations in the various leagues are of similar strength, with countries like France, England, Spain and Italy playing themselves in the Nations League, while countries like Kosovo, Gibraltar and Liechtenstein face off, with the resultant effect being that the matches have the same feel as the friendlies.
UEFA attempted to reduce dead rubber friendlies and improve competition among its member states, but the Nations league hasn’t addressed that much, and it is not helped by the fact that the matches are played simultaneously with friendly games.
#1 It offers qualification to a minnow
UEFA in a bid to make the competition more attractive across board introduced a format whereby countries can seek qualification for EURO 2020 through this route.
The scenario sees all four league winners offered direct qualification for the next EURO, while the remaining 20 slots would be gotten through the regular EURO qualifiers which are slated to start next year.
As most of the major nations in League A and to a lesser extent League B are all but guaranteed to qualify through the direct qualifiers, this is undoubtedly an incentive for the smaller teams in Leagues C and D, who now have a lifeline to qualify for a major tournament, batting which they might not have made it.
To put this in context, countries on League D such as Gibraltar, Malta, Andorra and Luxembourg now have a genuine chance of being at the EURO in two years, and with all due respect to them, a tournament such as that is a step too far for their ilk.
The difference in class between countries in the top spectre of European football (League A) and the bottom cadre (League D) is so vast that qualification matches between them are more an opportunity for players of the aforementioned to stat-pad than it is a competitive fixture, with scorelines resembling can cricket innings than football results.
Bigger nations usually breeze through qualifiers, as the smaller nations do not offer enough resistance to make them break a sweat, and fans usually look forward to the main tournaments for major competition between football heavyweights to provide genuine blockbusters.
The sheer number of football minnows present on Europe reduces interest in the continent's qualifiers, as there is already a prejudice of it being too easy compared to other confederations, and UEFA is doing itself no favours by undermining the strength of its major competition by offering a qualification to its weakest teams.
EURO 2020 is guaranteed to have at least one group containing a walkover team or two (depending on who represents League C) and as much as everyone loves a fairytale qualification story, just like Panama at the last World Cup who got walloped by Belgium and England, it reduces the overall competition of the tournament.
