UEFA Nations League

SuperDave84 wrote: Conan wrote: I've tried assessing the terms and conditions of this Nations league thing til my eyes glaze over but it stills makes little sense. If you have a team from all four tiers making this final play off, surely all the teams from the top league would already have qualified anyway and then most the second tier teams too. That would leave us only needing to maybe beat Northern ireland in the nations cup to alone potentially qualify us for a play off against Latvia or whoever to make the Euros. Saves this stupid best third place algorithm thing but it seems a pretty lame back door route to the finals, which I think are already too simple to qualify for as it is.  Could easily work in our favour mind. Not quite right. Say 11 of the 12 League A teams qualify in the proper qualifiers. Say 9 of the 12 League B teams do likewise. Then the playoffs are League A: four teams, one from League A and (I think) three from League C. League B: four teams, three from League B (I think) and one from League C. League C: four teams from League C. League D: four teams from League D. I'm not sure how they are ranked. I think the League C playoffs would be the top four teams from League C, with the fifth best League C team joining the League B playoffs and the sixth to eighth best teams joining the League A playoffs, but frankly I don't know that for sure.

CillDara wrote: Are they definitely the teams in each pot for the Nations League Dave? If so, I would like to get Austria and Czech republic for a mix of travel and results. Wouldn't fancy getting anything in Istanbul or Moscow. Northern Ireland is a hard one to judge but I would have a bad gut feeling that we could lose or there could be trouble at the game.

How would people feel if we did draw the north if the FAI refused an away allocation from the IFA

CillDara wrote: Are they definitely the teams in each pot for the Nations League Dave? If so, I would like to get Austria and Czech republic for a mix of travel and results. Wouldn't fancy getting anything in Istanbul or Moscow. Northern Ireland is a hard one to judge but I would have a bad gut feeling that we could lose or there could be trouble at the game.

Those are definitely the pots, yes.

Plus it would relive the FAI of having the hassle of distributing so few tickets amongst fans even though it would hardly be a game that would suit the corporate sector.

gspain wrote: Old Gill wrote: Cliftonville go to WP all the time. I went there for Celtic game and it's a short walk from the falls past some industrial estates and into the old spion kop. It skirts some loyalist areas but these were blocked off and not a sense of trouble. The biggest danger would be travelling up as buses may get bricked just after newry and maybe into Belfast That is ok for an Irish League game when there are no capacity issues.   Most of the stadium is sold on Campaign cards and the Kop is their singing section (although the whole ground sings at Internationals).  The IFA were in a bit of a ticket mess for Switzerland away and couldn't manager 1800 seats for away fans in Windsor which would have resolved their problem.  There is no way we'd get anything more than the minimum. Away fans go in the small corner stand between the North Stand and East Stand (opposite end to the Kop).  They also sit at that end of the North Stand.  Now the small corner stand has  capacity of approx 400-500 max maybe less.  If we were to take tickets then this would be the easiest from a security perspective.   I think the security issues and all the ticket woes for the sake of a few hundred tickets would probably result in home fans only.

wonder will RTE get any of the rights to this? our could the next game we are able to watch on TV bar sky not be until 2019 :(

djhegzy wrote: wonder will RTE get any of the rights to this? our could the next game we are able to watch on TV bar sky not be until 2019 :(

If the games are competitive, which technically the nations league then They have to be free to air, so more then likely will be pick up by RTE

5 teams from League C and D finishing in the top two of the qualifiers proper really isn't beyond the realms of possibility.

6 teams who were third or fourth seeds finished top two in the 2018 qualifiers.

8 teams who third or fourth seeds finished top two in the 2016 qualifiers.

Now, they're not quite the same thing, but the possibility is there, regardless, that the worst sides in League B might not make the playoffs. And even then, the playoffs are a one in four shot, with a possible 90 minute game away from home at the end.

We need to be second seeds to minimise the chances of being in the playoffs (I mean by maximising the chances of qualifying directly), and we need to finish top two in the nations league to give us the best possible chance of being in the playoffs if it does come to it.

Finishing top two is absolutely vital.


Edited by SuperDave84 - 29 Nov 2017 at 1:53pm