UEFA Nations League: 3 Things That Make the New Competition Exciting 

Other than the major events like the World Cup and the continental championships, International Football remained a mere formality more than a contest. Friendlies were used by national managers to figure out their best playing XI while the qualifiers had only two or three interesting matches per group.

The UEFA Nations League is an attempt by UEFA to address those concerns. The footballing body took a long time to think about it, and the result that came out consists of a league format which will have incentives for teams taking it seriously.

All European countries are divided into leagues based on their UEFA ranking, so there are fewer chances of matches between two unevenly matched sides which was so often the case with the qualifiers.

The tournament replaces international friendly matches during the league campaigns and provides some exciting contests between evenly matched sides. But there are aspects to the format which even the players have not been able to understand. Just like VAR in the 2018 World Cup, this one will take some time to get registered into the minds of the fans.

The draw for the 2018/19 Nations League was made in December 2017 and was based on the UEFA national team rankings as they stood at the end of qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup.

The teams have been divided into four leagues, each consisting of four groups. The 12 teams in Leagues A and B are divided into four groups of three, the 15 teams in League C are sorted into three groups of four plus one group of three, and the 16 teams in League D are sorted into four groups of four teams.

Here we take a look at what makes UEFA Nations League something different from the boring friendlies:

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#1 Euro 2020 berth at stake

Portugal were the winners of Euro 2016

The winners of each group from across the four leagues discussed previously, will progress to the qualifying playoffs that will take place in March 2020. If a group winner has already qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020 then the next best team which has not qualified for the event will get a chance.

The major change in scheduling is that the European Championship qualifying will begin in March 2019 and it will allocate Euro 2020 berths to only 20 teams instead of the 24 which were given in the previous edition in 2016.

Many would argue that the bigger teams will anyway get through from the qualifying campaign and that’s the exact point UEFA is making by giving the smaller teams a chance through the Nations League.

#2 Fewer one-sided international friendlies

More even contests are guaranteed.

UEFA European Championships and the Copa America qualifying are the only tournaments where there is no pre-tournament to select the best teams.

Or to put in a better way, there is no way to eliminate the weakest teams. Due to this, there is a heavy mismatch of quality in the actual qualifiers.

But the Nations League will be different as it will only contest matches between more evenly matched teams. The League group consisting of France, Germany and the Netherlands shows us the exact example of this benefit.

#3 There is a winner to be crowned at the end

The trophy was unveiled last year.

The winners of all groups of 3 in League A will fight in a 4-nation tournament at the end of the Nations League.

There will be a promotion and relegation system where the teams from lower leagues can enter the higher leagues and the teams not performing well in the higher leagues will be relegated to the lower leagues.

The winners of the four groups in League A will play each other in a one-leg semi-final in June 2019, with the winners going forward to contest the final.

And the winner of the final will be crowned the UEFA Nations League champions.