UEFA U17 NEW FORMAT

[Jackson Harrison]

Just had a chat with Sandra. She says that A) it's not gunna be the same format that was presented pre Covid and B) it's not finialised yet but the plan is to have a 4 tier 3 round system from 2025 for U17 and 2027 for U19.

Format not yet finalised but have a feeling either way this is gunna end in tiers...

Here is my interpretation of the proposed format:

Code: Select all

Round 1 (Sping of the year before FT)
           League A
           16 teams (4 bottom relegated)
           League B
           16 teams (4 tops promoted 4 bottom relegated)
           League C
           12 teams (3 tops and best 2nd promoted, 4 bottom relegated)
           League D
           11 teams (3 tops promoted)
Round 2 (Autumn of the year before FT)
           League A
           16 teams (4 winners qualify to FT, 4 runners-up qualify to R3)
           League B
           16 teams (4 winners qualify to R3)
           League C
           12 teams (3 winners qualify to R3)
           League D
           11 teams
Round 3
           12 teams: (3 tops qualify)
           4 from League A
           4 from League B
           3 from League C
           1 other (don't know how they qualify)

Thanks for the explanation. So this is a very similar format to the new Women’s Euro qualifying format.

The first round is basically a “preparation” round. Does not impact qualification directly, but teams are playing for a higher/lower league.

The second round is the “qualifying” round. The top teams from League A will qualify directly for the final tournament, while other teams compete for play-off places.

The third round is the “play-off” round which decides the remaining places of the final tournament.

This way, all teams are guaranteed to play the first two rounds, including the final tournament hosts.

I would also think after the second round, there will be promotion and relegation, to decide the starting league of the first round of next season.

Hold on...so League D teams can't physically qualify can they?

[amenina]

Here is my interpretation of the proposed format:

Code: Select all

Round 1 (Sping of the year before FT)
           League A
           16 teams (4 bottom relegated)
           League B
           16 teams (4 tops promoted 4 bottom relegated)
           League C
           12 teams (3 tops and best 2nd promoted, 4 bottom relegated)
           League D
           11 teams (3 tops promoted)
Round 2 (Autumn of the year before FT)
           League A
           16 teams (4 winners qualify to FT, 4 runners-up qualify to R3)
           League B
           16 teams (4 winners qualify to R3)
           League C
           12 teams (3 winners qualify to R3)
           League D
           11 teams
Round 3
           12 teams: (3 tops qualify)
           4 from League A
           4 from League B
           3 from League C
           1 other (don't know how they qualify)

Thanks for the explanation. So this is a very similar format to the new Women’s Euro qualifying format.

The first round is basically a “preparation” round. Does not impact qualification directly, but teams are playing for a higher/lower league.

The second round is the “qualifying” round. The top teams from League A will qualify directly for the final tournament, while other teams compete for play-off places.

The third round is the “play-off” round which decides the remaining places of the final tournament.

This way, all teams are guaranteed to play the first two rounds, including the final tournament hosts.

I would also think after the second round, there will be promotion and relegation, to decide the starting league of the first round of next season.

Hold on...so League D teams can't physically qualify can they?

Maybe the last play-off place is reserved for League D best group winner.

And no matter what, if they start in League D in the first round, they can always win their group and be promoted to League C for the second round.

[Jackson Harrison]

Thanks for the explanation. So this is a very similar format to the new Women’s Euro qualifying format.

The first round is basically a “preparation” round. Does not impact qualification directly, but teams are playing for a higher/lower league.

The second round is the “qualifying” round. The top teams from League A will qualify directly for the final tournament, while other teams compete for play-off places.

The third round is the “play-off” round which decides the remaining places of the final tournament.

This way, all teams are guaranteed to play the first two rounds, including the final tournament hosts.

I would also think after the second round, there will be promotion and relegation, to decide the starting league of the first round of next season.

Hold on...so League D teams can't physically qualify can they?

Maybe the last play-off place is reserved for League D best group winner.

And no matter what, if they start in League D in the first round, they can always win their group and be promoted to League C for the second round.

A 'wild card' was mentioned so maybe!

True

[amirbachar]

Also I've heard rounders that UEFA are considering expanding the U21 to 20 teams from 2025 and introducing a new qualifiers format.

According to UEFA, the 2025 U21 final tournament hosts will announced on 25 January (same day as UEFA Nations League finals draw), the qualifying draw will be held 2 February, and the qualifiers will officially start in March. So we will soon see whether there is any change in format.

https://www.uefa.com/returntoplay/news/ ... -calendar/

Does nations league format officially stay the same before the draw? What about the WC playoffs, any news there?

[Jackson Harrison]

Also I've heard rounders that UEFA are considering expanding the U21 to 20 teams from 2025 and introducing a new qualifiers format.

According to UEFA, the 2025 U21 final tournament hosts will announced on 25 January (same day as UEFA Nations League finals draw), the qualifying draw will be held 2 February, and the qualifiers will officially start in March. So we will soon see whether there is any change in format.

https://www.uefa.com/returntoplay/news/ ... -calendar/

Does nations league format officially stay the same before the draw? What about the WC playoffs, any news there?

It's U21 draw not NL.

What do you mean in regards to WC PO?

[amenina]

According to UEFA, the 2025 U21 final tournament hosts will announced on 25 January (same day as UEFA Nations League finals draw), the qualifying draw will be held 2 February, and the qualifiers will officially start in March. So we will soon see whether there is any change in format.

https://www.uefa.com/returntoplay/news/ ... -calendar/

Does nations league format officially stay the same before the draw? What about the WC playoffs, any news there?

It's U21 draw not NL.

What do you mean in regards to WC PO?

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/news/02 ... n-meeting/

The UEFA Executive Committee will hold its next meeting at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, on Wednesday 25 January 2023 from 14:00 to 17:00 CET.

The main items on the agenda are:

• Men’s national team competition formats post-UEFA EURO 2024

• Appointment of hosts for the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament

• Appointment of hosts for the 2022/23 UEFA Futsal Champions League finals

• Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2023–25

• Regulations of the 2023–25 UEFA European Women's Championship, including UEFA Nations League and European Qualifiers

The next UEFA Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for 4 April 2023 – the day before the 47th Ordinary UEFA Congress – in Lisbon, Portugal.

Note to media:

UEFA will communicate the Executive Committee’s decisions in a media release after the meeting. Kindly note that media activities are not planned for this event.

[amenina]

Also I've heard rounders that UEFA are considering expanding the U21 to 20 teams from 2025 and introducing a new qualifiers format.

According to UEFA, the 2025 U21 final tournament hosts will announced on 25 January (same day as UEFA Nations League finals draw), the qualifying draw will be held 2 February, and the qualifiers will officially start in March. So we will soon see whether there is any change in format.

https://www.uefa.com/returntoplay/news/ ... -calendar/

Does nations league format officially stay the same before the draw? What about the WC playoffs, any news there?

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/news/02 ... n-meeting/

The UEFA Executive Committee will hold its next meeting at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, on Wednesday 25 January 2023 from 14:00 to 17:00 CET.

The main items on the agenda are:

• Men’s national team competition formats post-UEFA EURO 2024

[Jackson Harrison]

Does nations league format officially stay the same before the draw? What about the WC playoffs, any news there?

It's U21 draw not NL.

What do you mean in regards to WC PO?

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/news/02 ... n-meeting/

The UEFA Executive Committee will hold its next meeting at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, on Wednesday 25 January 2023 from 14:00 to 17:00 CET.

The main items on the agenda are:

• Men’s national team competition formats post-UEFA EURO 2024

• Appointment of hosts for the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship final tournament

• Appointment of hosts for the 2022/23 UEFA Futsal Champions League finals

• Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2023–25

• Regulations of the 2023–25 UEFA European Women's Championship, including UEFA Nations League and European Qualifiers

The next UEFA Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for 4 April 2023 – the day before the 47th Ordinary UEFA Congress – in Lisbon, Portugal.

Note to media:

UEFA will communicate the Executive Committee’s decisions in a media release after the meeting. Kindly note that media activities are not planned for this event.

So no women's Euro host announcement?

[Tazmania]

I think that decision has been postponed until the meeting in April.

It will be interesting to see what format UEFA opts for men's NL, and WC and EURO qualifiers from 2024/25.

[Jackson Harrison]

I think that decision has been postponed until the meeting in April.

It will be interesting to see what format UEFA opts for men's NL, and WC and EURO qualifiers from 2024/25.

Indeed. England are in League B so hoping they change format to get us back into League A (know that sounds dodgy lol). Italy were so jammy to make finals Hungary deserved to Italy really annoy me after they cheated Euro final was so funny when they lost to North Macedonia.

[amenina]

New formats for UEFA men’s national team competitions approved

https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/mediase ... tions-app/

The UEFA Executive Committee today met at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, and approved new formats for its men’s national team competitions that will come into effect in September 2024.

Following an extensive consultation process with its national associations, it was decided to slightly modify the current formats of the UEFA Nations League and the European Qualifiers to provide more compelling and exciting competitions within existing dates, as well as to strengthen the resources of national associations and ensure a steady recovery from the impact of the pandemic.

A new meaningful knock-out UEFA Nations League round combined with a more compact format of European Qualifiers results in more compelling ties without any increase in the overall number of matches.

The new formats will be as follows:

UEFA Nations League

The UEFA Nations League will be expanded with a new knock-out round to be played in March, thereby creating continuity between the group phase ending in November and the Finals played in June.

League A group winners and runners-up will participate in home-and-away quarter-finals, with the winners of these ties qualifying for the Final Four.

The 3rd-ranked of League A and the runners-up of League B, as well as the 3rd-ranked of League B and the runners-up of League C will play a home-and-away promotion/relegation play-off.

The expansion of the UEFA Nations League into the International Match Calendar window of March will only concern a selected number of teams and the remaining teams will already be available to start the European Qualifiers.

European Qualifiers

The new format of the European Qualifiers for UEFA EURO or the FIFA World Cup will be more consolidated, with teams being drawn in 12 groups of four and five teams, consequently revitalising the competition by making it less predictable and more dynamic.

With the traditional home-and-away matches and “all play all” principles retained, this simple format will offer more competitive groups at all levels.



Teams drawn in groups of five will kick off the qualifiers in March, or in June if they are still competing in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals or are involved in promotion/relegation matches. Teams drawn in groups of four will start their campaigns in September.

The group-winners of the European Qualifiers will qualify directly for the UEFA EURO or the FIFA World Cup, whereas the second-placed teams will either qualify directly or participate in play-off matches (together with UEFA Nations League teams for qualification to the UEFA EURO). A visual description of the qualification modus and further details on the format can be found here.

No change has been proposed for the UEFA EURO final tournament, which will still feature 24 teams.

The new format will be implemented after UEFA EURO 2024.

Commenting on the revamped competitions, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said:



“The introduction of the UEFA Nations League was a success story, replacing friendly games with more competitive matches. And now, by introducing the new knock-out phase, teams will be given even more opportunities to progress while keeping the same number of games within the International Match Calendar.



“The predictability of the European Qualifiers has also been addressed and tackled, with a fresh new format that will offer all the teams an equal chance to qualify for major tournaments.



“The new format promises to bring more excitement to Europe’s national team football competitions that continue to grow from strength to strength.”

UEFA Super Cup

The UEFA Executive Committee decided to relocate the 2023 UEFA Super Cup from Kazan, Russia, to Athens, Greece. The game will be played at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in the Greek capital on Wednesday 16 August at 21:00 CET (22:00 local time).

2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The Slovak Football Association (SFZ) was appointed to host the 16-team final tournament of the 2025 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. The matches will be played in eight venues in eight different cities across the country in the summer of 2025.

UEFA Return to Play Protocol

Following the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current overall developments around Europe, including the removal of previous measures in place in most domestic competitions, the UEFA Executive Committee has decided to discontinue the application of the UEFA Return to Play Protocol.

In line with the discontinuation of the Protocol, it was further decided to no longer continue to introduce the relevant Annexes related to special rules applicable due to COVID-19, which were included in the UEFA competition regulations, as these rules were linked to the application of the Protocol.

UEFA will nonetheless continue to closely monitor the evolution of the pandemic, and, in case of a significant change in circumstance, will propose appropriate measures in order to ensure the safety of all those concerned and the smooth running of its competitions, including if necessary, re-implementing any relevant obligations and hygiene measures.

Competition regulations

The UEFA Executive Committee approved the regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2023–25 and the regulations of the 2023–25 UEFA European Women's Championship.

Next meeting

The next UEFA Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for 4 April 2023 – the day before the 47th Ordinary UEFA Congress – in Lisbon, Portugal.

[Lorric]

I can't fault UEFA for anything from a business stndpoint, I'm sure all changes will be beneficial from that standpoint.

Overall as a package, I'm happy to accept it but I don't like everything.

The Nations League, this is a big improvement imo. Now every position has a considerable difference to it and is worth fighting for. 4th, you go down. 3rd, you fight for survival. 2nd you fight for promotion. 1st you get promoted. I would expect 1st in League A to be granted the second leg at home. I also hope 3rd place teams are granted the second leg at home. Since those teams are a couple of places above the 2nds from below, I think the seconds should have to do a little more than simply win a fair contest to show they deserve to go up. These contests should also be more entertaining to watch than your average qualifier. Never mind the quarter finals for the cup. I think it'll be brilliant to see top teams clashing in home and away KO games.

But it comes with a price. I can't fault UEFA for wanting to shake up Euro qualifying, I've seen so many people complain about UEFA qualifying being boring now with 24 teams and while I personally disagree, there are now three UEFA tournaments instead of one to go for in a 4 year cycle, and I'm not going to have much sympathy for a team which can't make the cut for a 24 team tournament. Even though I would prefer more games, not less, to qualify teams. The one real problem I have is the World Cup. No. You should not be making WCQ unpredictable, and if I could, I'd make the Nations League alternate between current format and new format to allow WCQ years to remain the same. You should be striving to ensure the finest teams go to the World Cup. It's only every four years, and you might do everything right as a player only to be on the shelf when it's World Cup time. Not to mention the battle for spots, which UEFA sadly doesn't seem to care about and lets all the other confederations walk all over us.

The devil is in the detail, and they haven't shown us how many groups there will be. Could very easily be that a team could do everything right, but they got France in their group, so then they have to beat two teams in single leg playoffs as the away team. In fact I think it will be that way, because they said Nations League teams will be involved in the playoffs and we already have ten groups and we only have 16 slots. Even if it was 12 groups, that could easily be 12 teams plus 4 Nations League teams that have to get down to 4 teams. And with less games in the groups, there will probably be more big teams in those playoffs. And if it was more than 12 you'd have to defeat at least 3 teams in playoffs because 13 into 3 doesn't go, even without Nations League teams. So 12 seems the most likely to me, with 16 teams fighting for 4 places. Not sure how it'll work for UEFA qualifying though. Maybe 12 group winners, host, top 4 runners up, 4 playoff winners, and 3 places via Nations League A, B and C. So now suddenly you really want to win your qualifying group even though it's a 24 team tournament.

[Jackson Harrison]

I can't fault UEFA for anything from a business stndpoint, I'm sure all changes will be beneficial from that standpoint.

Overall as a package, I'm happy to accept it but I don't like everything.

The Nations League, this is a big improvement imo. Now every position has a considerable difference to it and is worth fighting for. 4th, you go down. 3rd, you fight for survival. 2nd you fight for promotion. 1st you get promoted. I would expect 1st in League A to be granted the second leg at home. I also hope 3rd place teams are granted the second leg at home. Since those teams are a couple of places above the 2nds from below, I think the seconds should have to do a little more than simply win a fair contest to show they deserve to go up. These contests should also be more entertaining to watch than your average qualifier. Never mind the quarter finals for the cup. I think it'll be brilliant to see top teams clashing in home and away KO games.

But it comes with a price. I can't fault UEFA for wanting to shake up Euro qualifying, I've seen so many people complain about UEFA qualifying being boring now with 24 teams and while I personally disagree, there are now three UEFA tournaments instead of one to go for in a 4 year cycle, and I'm not going to have much sympathy for a team which can't make the cut for a 24 team tournament. Even though I would prefer more games, not less, to qualify teams. The one real problem I have is the World Cup. No. You should not be making WCQ unpredictable, and if I could, I'd make the Nations League alternate between current format and new format to allow WCQ years to remain the same. You should be striving to ensure the finest teams go to the World Cup. It's only every four years, and you might do everything right as a player only to be on the shelf when it's World Cup time. Not to mention the battle for spots, which UEFA sadly doesn't seem to care about and lets all the other confederations walk all over us.

The devil is in the detail, and they haven't shown us how many groups there will be. Could very easily be that a team could do everything right, but they got France in their group, so then they have to beat two teams in single leg playoffs as the away team. In fact I think it will be that way, because they said Nations League teams will be involved in the playoffs and we already have ten groups and we only have 16 slots. Even if it was 12 groups, that could easily be 12 teams plus 4 Nations League teams that have to get down to 4 teams. And with less games in the groups, there will probably be more big teams in those playoffs. And if it was more than 12 you'd have to defeat at least 3 teams in playoffs because 13 into 3 doesn't go, even without Nations League teams. So 12 seems the most likely to me, with 16 teams fighting for 4 places. Not sure how it'll work for UEFA qualifying though. Maybe 12 group winners, host, top 4 runners up, 4 playoff winners, and 3 places via Nations League A, B and C. So now suddenly you really want to win your qualifying group even though it's a 24 team tournament.

Though the 12 finest ranked teams would be kept apart so they all have a chance to qualify without battling each other.

Would imagine that UNL group winners would play second leg of QF at home but not sure what they'll do about Finals host?

As for play-off I'd expect an open draw?

[Michele]

I also have several problems with the qualifying campaigns. First of all, I don't like that the entire qualifying process for a tournament played every four years is completed is little over two months. A couple of injuries during those months can severely impact your chances of qualifying and, probably even more important to me, the qualifiers should be a drawn out affair so that there is plenty of time to think of possibilities, draw up scenarios and redo the whole thing after each match day. If you're only following a limited number of European teams the World Cup can now be reduced to two months during qualifiers and one month during the final tournament. Way too little for my taste.

Another issue is that I'm not sure that things will be "less predictable and more dynamic" just because they say so. Yes, there will be fewer matches against the lowest ranked teams, but there will also be fewer matches against highly ranked teams. It will be much more unlikely to see three genuinely good teams in the same group because the threshold for being in pot 3 will be lowered from rank 21 to rank 25. And with more groups, it will also be more likely that the difference between teams in each pot will increase. To me this spells more predictability - not less.

I assume that the less predictability part will come into play when the two top seeded teams cancel out each other and leave the outcome of the group to be decided by who can score more goals againt lower ranked teams. That may in fact be unpredictable, but not in a good way. Does anyone remember the beautiful and very fair unpredictability of Spain - Malta 12-1 from the Eurp'84 qualifiers?

[amenina]

I also have several problems with the qualifying campaigns. First of all, I don't like that the entire qualifying process for a tournament played every four years is completed is little over two months. A couple of injuries during those months can severely impact your chances of qualifying and, probably even more important to me, the qualifiers should be a drawn out affair so that there is plenty of time to think of possibilities, draw up scenarios and redo the whole thing after each match day. If you're only following a limited number of European teams the World Cup can now be reduced to two months during qualifiers and one month during the final tournament. Way too little for my taste.

Another issue is that I'm not sure that things will be "less predictable and more dynamic" just because they say so. Yes, there will be fewer matches against the lowest ranked teams, but there will also be fewer matches against highly ranked teams. It will be much more unlikely to see three genuinely good teams in the same group because the threshold for being in pot 3 will be lowered from rank 21 to rank 25. And with more groups, it will also be more likely that the difference between teams in each pot will increase. To me this spells more predictability - not less.

I assume that the less predictability part will come into play when the two top seeded teams cancel out each other and leave the outcome of the group to be decided by who can score more goals againt lower ranked teams. That may in fact be unpredictable, but not in a good way. Does anyone remember the beautiful and very fair unpredictability of Spain - Malta 12-1 from the Eurp'84 qualifiers?

Please post your comments on another thread which is easier to follow:

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