It’s a crowded soccer summer: The Women’s World Cup starts on Friday; South America will determine its men’s champion in the Copa América; and North America, Central America and the Caribbean will do the same in the Concacaf Gold Cup.
So you may have missed another competition that will wrap up this week: the new Nations League. Cristiano Ronaldo, Raheem Sterling and Virgil van Dijk are among the top players who are battling this week in Guimarães and Porto, Portugal, in the semifinals and finals.
UEFA, Europe’s governing body, said it started the event to provide more competitive soccer for national teams and to cut down on the number of friendlies. Last fall, all 55 European nations participated in the inaugural event. To keep the matches competitive, teams were divided into four groups, based on rankings, so France could face Germany, and Azerbaijan would only have to play Malta. As in a regular club league, there is promotion and relegation.
The results of last fall’s action will also have a somewhat complicated effect on qualifying for the European Championship in 2020. After the regular qualifying for the Euros is over next fall, teams that failed to make it but that did well in the Nations League will get to play in a last-chance tournament for four more berths.
In an eyebrow-raising twist, teams even from the weaker Leagues C and D will get a qualifying slot, meaning a team like Kosovo or Georgia will be playing in the European Championship next year alongside the top teams.
As for the Nations League, the final four from League A will face off for the title this week, with Portugal against Switzerland on Wednesday and England facing the Netherlands on Thursday. The final is Sunday.
Will the new event catch on? Well, at least in England, there is a decent buzz around the Nations League. After starting with a loss and a draw, England won two straight to take its closely fought group. Fans there also enjoyed the unusual sight of Germany being relegated.
England has not won a major international title since 1966; it remains to be seen if the Nations League will prove to be considered a major, but certainly the English are hungry for silverware.
UEFA is pushing ahead with plans to hold the Nations League every two years, and the 2020-21 event may even be made a part of World Cup qualifying.
And other continents have taken notice. North America is also going the Nations League route; it has already started, though you may not have noticed results like Belize 4, Bahamas 0 and Cayman Islands 0, Saint Lucia 0 last fall. The United States will be in a League A group along with Canada and Cuba starting in September. Africa is also starting a Nations League.
FIFA has even talked about starting a global Nations League that might look a bit like a mini-World Cup. Or even a maxi-World Cup, if it follows a similar model and all 200-plus international teams are included.
“We are in it to win it,” Bernardo Silva of Portugal told reporters before the start. “It would be brilliant to finish this season with a title with Portugal.”
No doubt players said something similar before the very first World Cup. Of course, the remarks were probably the same before forgotten international tournaments like the Central European International Cup and the Artemio Franchi Trophy, too. It remains to be seen which category the Nations League will fall into.
Source : NYtimes
