Euros 2020

[Sutekh]

...and the added shamble that 4 of the 24 spots at 2020 will be decided by the 2018-19 UEFA nations league, which will presumably make some of the regular qualification spots redundant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%8 ... qualifying

Que?

Hi, this is Europe and we make things as convoluted and complicated as possible.....

The 2018–19 UEFA Nations League will be linked with UEFA Euro qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for UEFA Euro 2020. The main qualifying process will now begin in March 2019 instead of immediately in September 2018 following the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and will end in November 2019.

The format will remain largely the same, although only 20 of the 24 spots for the finals tournament will be decided from the main qualifying process, leaving four spots still to be decided. The 55 teams will be drawn into 10 groups after the completion of the UEFA Nations League (five groups of six teams and five groups of five teams, with the four UEFA Nations League Final Four participants guaranteed to be drawn into groups of five teams), with the top two teams in each group qualifying. The qualifiers will be played on double matchdays in March, June, September, October and November 2019.

Each Nations League division will be allocated one of the four remaining UEFA Euro 2020 places. Four teams from each division which have not already qualified for the Euro finals will compete in the play-offs for each division, to be played in March 2020. The play-off berths will be first allocated to each pool winner, and if any of the pool winners have already qualified for the Euro finals, then to the next best ranked team of the division, etc. If in any division, there are fewer than four teams which have not already qualified for the Euro finals, the play-off berths will be allocated to the next best ranked team of the following division, etc.

The play-offs will consist of two "one-off" semi-finals (best-ranked team vs. fourth best-ranked team and second best-ranked team vs. third best-ranked team, played at home of higher-ranked teams) and one "one-off" final between the two semi-finals winners (venue drawn in advance). The four division winners will join the 20 teams which have already qualified for the Euro finals. This means at least one team from each Nations League division will qualify for the Euro finals.

[Sanguine]

I've read it 5 times and I'm still not sure how it works.

[Brosef Stalin]

and you want to remain

hashtagpcunts

[genome]

Basically,

There will be four leagues in the Nations League (A-D) based upon ranking/recent results. Each of those leagues will be split into 4 pools (or mini-leagues if you will) of 3 or 4 teams, who play each other round-robin style.

In League A, the winners of each pool/mini-league go through to a mini knockout tournament (with a semi final and final) and whoever wins that will be the overall champions of the Nations League.

Once that's all done, all 55 teams are drawn into another completely separate 10 groups as per the normal qualifying process and 20 teams go through from this.

Then after that's all done, the four pool/mini-league winners from each League go through to a separate play off (with a semi final and final) and each overall winner goes through to the Euros. If the pool/mini league winners already qualified from the main qualifying process then their play off spot goes to the next best side who haven't qualified.

Simples...

[Sanguine]

Got it. So if I'm understanding right that guarantees (pretty much) a 'minnow' at the Euro 2020 finals, given that the winner of the League D play-offs will take a spot.

Based on the league splits on the wiki page, League D would start with 97th ranked Cyprus, and include the likes of Macedonia, Belarus and Luxembourg.

[Hoop Blah]

Do you think they're on a bonus for finding as many ways as possible to ruin what was a really good and competitive tournament?

Perhaps they've brought someone over from the ICC to advise on dragging things out needlessly.

[Sutekh]

Got it. So if I'm understanding right that guarantees (pretty much) a 'minnow' at the Euro 2020 finals, given that the winner of the League D play-offs will take a spot.

Based on the league splits on the wiki page, League D would start with 97th ranked Cyprus, and include the likes of Macedonia, Belarus and Luxembourg.

Don't forget though they also have to factor each teams pass ratio by the Rougeometer coefficient and then remove the team they first thought of.

[Stranded]

Got it. So if I'm understanding right that guarantees (pretty much) a 'minnow' at the Euro 2020 finals, given that the winner of the League D play-offs will take a spot.

Based on the league splits on the wiki page, League D would start with 97th ranked Cyprus, and include the likes of Macedonia, Belarus and Luxembourg.

Yep - one definitive minnow will qualify, also likely to give a safety net to countries so countries like The Netherlands should not fail to qualify again. These spots replace the 3rd place qualifiers going into the play-offs like this qualifying tournament.

[Sanguine]

You're right, thinking about it - if League A contains the 12 top ranked teams in UEFA, one might expect the vast majority of them to qualify the normal way, so this is almost a second chance for any big team that screws up qualifying.

[Sutekh]

You're right, thinking about it - if League A contains the 12 top ranked teams in UEFA, one might expect the vast majority of them to qualify the normal way, so this is almost a second chance for any big team that screws up qualifying.

Yes, heaven forfend a "big" team screwing up qualification. Perhaps UEFA should do away with the alsorans altogether and just have the top 24 european countries, according to fan and finance size, automatically qualify for the finals

Could also do the same for the World Cup.

[From Despair To Where?]

Why don't they just draw 24 teams at random, roll dice to get the scores and then divvy the money saved between the UEFA executive committee, or is that sort of blue sky thinking frowned upon now Platini is out of the picture?

[stealthpapes]

Got it. So if I'm understanding right that guarantees (pretty much) a 'minnow' at the Euro 2020 finals, given that the winner of the League D play-offs will take a spot.

Based on the league splits on the wiki page, League D would start with 97th ranked Cyprus, and include the likes of Macedonia, Belarus and Luxembourg.

Yeah, I spotted that as well.

Christ.

[stealthpapes]

To be fair, games in Dublin, Bilbao and, oh, I don't know, Baku could be fun.