UEFA Nations League 2022/23

[AlanK]

And how bout Nico Williams

Indeed he has been great for Nottingham Forest and the Welsh national football team! Still only 21 years old!

He's Neco, not Nico.

That would be true if we always listened to English announcers, but the announcers are usually Spanish, and the pronunciation is "Nico." If you spell it "Neco" it comes out pronounced "Nayco" or close thereto. All very interesting . . .

Checked this out--there is also a "Neco Williams" who has no relationship to "Nico Williams"; the latter plays for Athletic Bilbao and La Roja.

[Lubomir25]

Scotland not doing too badly.

We hit on this revolutionary idea, where the team pass the ball to each other and try to score goals. Incredibly, this insane idea has improved our team considerably.



Genuinely, though, the improvement from a few years ago is incredible.

I dread the day Steve Clarke goes, the guys a genius

[BurningStorm]

In Nations League Italy reached the final 4 already 2 times (England 1 time and Germany 0).

Hannover 96 have won the Intertoto Cup three times!!

I'm not sure if final four participations in the NL are a good consolation prize when you missed two World Cups in a row. Italy's great success recently was the deserved win at the EURO. A NL trophy wouldn't even be a tenth of that. I also ignored our Confed Cup win '17.

You didn't understand @wannabeontop's post, btw. He was talking about your other neighbour, his country.

[wannabeontop]

It's fine, it's fine. At least I made him double-check!

[bugylibicska]

Indeed he has been great for Nottingham Forest and the Welsh national football team! Still only 21 years old!

He's Neco, not Nico.

That would be true if we always listened to English announcers, but the announcers are usually Spanish, and the pronunciation is "Nico." If you spell it "Neco" it comes out pronounced "Nayco" or close thereto. All very interesting . . .

Checked this out--there is also a "Neco Williams" who has no relationship to "Nico Williams"; the latter plays for Athletic Bilbao and La Roja.

I think you've misread my "He's Neco, not Nico." You've mentioned Nico and he mixed up - that's what I've thought, but he joked - with Neco. Both Williams, but one is playing for Spain the other for Wales. Nico has a brother who plays for Ghana - Inaki and both play for Athletic Bilbao.

[AlanK]

He's Neco, not Nico.

That would be true if we always listened to English announcers, but the announcers are usually Spanish, and the pronunciation is "Nico." If you spell it "Neco" it comes out pronounced "Nayco" or close thereto. All very interesting . . .

Checked this out--there is also a "Neco Williams" who has no relationship to "Nico Williams"; the latter plays for Athletic Bilbao and La Roja.

I think you've misread my "He's Neco, not Nico." You've mentioned Nico and he mixed up - that's what I've thought, but he joked - with Neco. Both Williams, but one is playing for Spain the other for Wales. Nico has a brother who plays for Ghana - Inaki and both play for Athletic Bilbao.

You've got it all correct, bugy

[seso]

I think you've misread my "He's Neco, not Nico." You've mentioned Nico and he mixed up - that's what I've thought, but he joked - with Neco. Both Williams, but one is playing for Spain the other for Wales. Nico has a brother who plays for Ghana - Inaki and both play for Athletic Bilbao.

Large family these Williams! And they play for several national teams!

[LRansborg]

Scotland isolated and surrounded by lower tier neighbors from all sides of the world.

The situation for Sweden is horrible to their self image: They play at the same level as Faroe Islands (!), a level below Norway, Finland & Iceland, and 2 levels below Denmark who they would normally see as main rival for being best in the Nordics

[Ed]

And you are not too afraid to point that out ! Nice, those regional subtleties

[seso]

The Faroes have done very well (wins at home against Turkey and Lithuania, draws away against Lithuania and Luxemburg) and they comfortably remained in League C.
Luxemburg national team following the success of F91 Dudelange.

[nogomet]

A bizarre 82nd minute own goal against Croatia in MD5 of the 2020/21 Nations League that reduced Sweden's lead from 2-0 to 2-1 was the difference between Sweden relegating or staying in League A.

Two years later, Sweden dropped further to League C, while Croatia qualified for the Final 4 of the League A.

What a turn of events.

[Magnus]

The Swedish steep decline started with the last minute goal by Ukraine in the EURO last year.
Before that:
- good results in the EURO (beating Poland, drawing Spain, winning the Group, interesting path forward in the EURO),
- good chance to win the WC qualification group (beating Spain etc).
After that:
- losses against Georgia and Greece in the group stage leading to playoff.
- Barely beating Czech in first WC playoff but without a chance against Poland in the final round.
- Nations league... nothing but a disaster. Lost twice to little brother Norway, twice to Serbia.

Why? Key players not available or in form for various reasons:
- Injuries (Ekdal Spezia, Krafth & Isak Newcastle, Jesper Karlsson AZ)
- Left National Team (Pontus Jansson Brentford)
- Benchwarmers in the club (Lindelöf & Elanga ManU, Olsen & Augustinsson Aston Villa, Forsberg Leipzig)

Starting line up in last match:
Olsen (benchwarmer in Aston V)
Andersson (semi-regular in Midtjylland)
Hien (debutant, left Swedish league in summer, two matches for Verona)
Lindelöf (benchwarmer in Man U)
Augustinsson (benchwarmer in Aston V)
Claesson (at the end of his career, regular in FC Copenhagen)
Olsson (did not take a place in Anderlecht, on loan at Midtjylland)
Karlström (regular in Lech Poznan)
Forsberg (semi-regular in RB Leipzig)
Kulusevski (the only star, regular in Spurs)
Quaison (Saudi league)

Honestly... there is not much hope for the near future.

[Korgutt]

The Swedish steep decline started with the last minute goal by Ukraine in the EURO last year.
Before that:
- good results in the EURO (beating Poland, drawing Spain, winning the Group, interesting path forward in the EURO),
- good chance to win the WC qualification group (beating Spain etc).
After that:
- losses against Georgia and Greece in the group stage leading to playoff.
- Barely beating Czech in first WC playoff but without a chance against Poland in the final round.
- Nations league... nothing but a disaster. Lost twice to little brother Norway, twice to Serbia.

Why? Key players not available or in form for various reasons:
- Injuries (Ekdal Spezia, Krafth & Isak Newcastle, Jesper Karlsson AZ)
- Left National Team (Pontus Jansson Brentford)
- Benchwarmers in the club (Lindelöf & Elanga ManU, Olsen & Augustinsson Aston Villa, Forsberg Leipzig)

Starting line up in last match:
Olsen (benchwarmer in Aston V)
Andersson (semi-regular in Midtjylland)
Hien (debutant, left Swedish league in summer, two matches for Verona)
Lindelöf (benchwarmer in Man U)
Augustinsson (benchwarmer in Aston V)
Claesson (at the end of his career, regular in FC Copenhagen)
Olsson (did not take a place in Anderlecht, on loan at Midtjylland)
Karlström (regular in Lech Poznan)
Forsberg (semi-regular in RB Leipzig)
Kulusevski (the only star, regular in Spurs)
Quaison (Saudi league)

Honestly... there is not much hope for the near future.

Any discussion in Sweden about Isak and Newcastle? Here in Norway many people talks about Normann and Moscow and Håland playing in City.

[Magnus]

Not much discussion about Newcastle/Isak. I believe that all Swedish footballers have left their Russian clubs (there were quite a few before the war) but there would definitely have been a discussion if that would happen. We have that with the handful of hockey players staying in Russia.

[amenina]

This is an interesting article from the Japanese media, which says that Japan is interested in joining the UEFA Nations League to prepare for the 2026 World Cup.

https://www.msn.com/ja-jp/sports/soccer ... cb2040ae6b

However, I can't see how this would be possible in terms of the schedule. The 2024/25 UNL is expected to be played in September, October, and November 2024, which coincide with the Asia WCQ 3rd round which Japan should participate in.

But I do expect Japan (and a few other Asian teams) joining in 2026/27.

As for 2024/25, I also expect UEFA will invite guest teams, since this has been discussed in the media for a while. They can add the South American teams and/or the 3 North American World Cup hosts.

Even if South America keeps the 18-match qualifying format, they can possibly still squeeze the UNL in if they start qualifying early. They can play 8 matches in September, October, November 2023 and March 2024 (I expect Copa America in June 2024), and the other 10 matches in 2025.

Also, the cynical side in me thinks that the last time a big team (Germany) was relegated, UEFA expanded League A to rescue them. And this time, another big team (England) was relegated, so....

Maybe the teams can be distributed like this.

Total: 67 teams (54 European teams + 10 South American teams + 3 North American teams; I am excluding Russia for now)

League A: 28 teams (16 teams originally to be in League A + 4 teams originally to be relegated to League B + 5 South American teams + 3 North American teams)
4 groups of 7 teams, single round-robin (6 matches)
The schedule of each window can be something like this:
Window 1:
Wed: 1 v 2
Thu: 3 v 4
Fri: 5 v 6
Sat: 7 v 1
Sun: 2 v 3
Mon: 4 v 5
Tue: 6 v 7
Window 2:
Wed: 1 v 3
Thu: 5 v 7
Fri: 2 v 4
Sat: 6 v 1
Sun: 3 v 5
Mon: 7 v 2
Tue: 4 v 6
Window 3:
Wed: 1 v 4
Sat: 7 v 3, 6 v 2, 5 v 1
Tue: 4 v 7, 3 v 6, 2 v 5
South American teams would obviously play their home matches in Europe. North American teams could possible play at home if the matches are on the East Coast (Mexico likely want to play in the US given their fanbase). The only League A team which is too far away from North America is Israel, so we can restrict them drawn in the same group.

League B: 20 teams (12 teams originally to be in League B + 3 teams originally to be relegated to League C + 5 South American teams)
5 groups of 4 teams, double round-robin (6 matches)

League C: 12 teams (12 teams originally to be in League C)
3 groups of 4 teams, double round-robin (6 matches)

League D: 7 teams (7 teams originally to be in League D)
2 groups of 3 or 4 teams, double round-robin (4 or 6 matches)

There will be promotion/relegation play-offs between the leagues to balance them correctly (or perhaps not even necessary if new teams are added for 2026/27).

And for European League A teams, finishing in the top two means you are eligible for World Cup play-offs (this prevents too many dead rubbers in the final rounds), together with the group winners of other leagues.