No competitive games until September 2018

Steve Amsterdam wrote: colemanY2K wrote: Steve Amsterdam wrote: ConorMac77 wrote: Colum wrote: Playoff semis are played at the home of whichever team finishes highest in the league  (not UEFA rankings)  e.g. Ireland, Austria, Russia and Wales all top their groups but don't qualify from the "regular" qualifying group.  Ireland have 12 points  (it's my example, I can dream), Austria 9, Russia 8 and Wales 7. Ireland would play Wales in Dublin and  Austria would be at home to Russia. A  draw is done in advance to play the final at the home of the winner of either Semi 1 or Semi 2. No neutral venues involved. Ah right, I thought the final was to be in a neutral venue.  As long as that draw is done fairly quickly (up to a week) after the regular Euro 2020 qualifiers so fans involved have several months to make travel arrangements (both for the definite SF and prospective final). Fair enough if the draw is done timely enough. But it would still be a very short time before you can firm up any possible booking. Let's use your example and just say the draw has been made 4 weeks prior to the semis that the final will be played at the home of the winner of semi 2 (Austria v Russia). And we're in Semi 1.  (Ireland v Denmark) This means that should we win our semi, we would have to travel to either Cardiff or Moscow. The first being easy enough short term, the latter being a nightmare short notice as there are also visa requirements etc.  We win our grudge match against the Danes, and Russia deal Wales another nightmare loss at home at the final hurdle. Meaning we get a Russia v Ireland final in Moscow. And we get 3 days to sort ourselves out to get there....   This is exactly what I'm getting at... It's absolutely ludicrous.

Edited by colemanY2K - 17 Nov 2017 at 10:34am

darragh90 wrote: An extra blanket for qualification is the fact that if we dont finish in top 4 of all teams in group B we'll more than likely be propped up to the Group 1 playoffs. There are 12 really strong teams in group 1 so you'd imagine at least 9/10 will qualify in the main euros qualification thus needing weaker teams from lower groups to compete in the group 1 playoffs!!!

id guess and say about 17 of the top 24 NL teams will qualify in euros qualifiers so a playoff is almost guaranteed. Plus it shows importance of being in the NL top 24 going forward if the format is retained.

Edited by Dalymount79 - 17 Nov 2017 at 11:05am

colemanY2K wrote: Steve Amsterdam wrote: ConorMac77 wrote: Colum wrote: Playoff semis are played at the home of whichever team finishes highest in the league  (not UEFA rankings)  e.g. Ireland, Austria, Russia and Wales all top their groups but don't qualify from the "regular" qualifying group.  Ireland have 12 points  (it's my example, I can dream), Austria 9, Russia 8 and Wales 7. Ireland would play Wales in Dublin and  Austria would be at home to Russia. A  draw is done in advance to play the final at the home of the winner of either Semi 1 or Semi 2. No neutral venues involved. Ah right, I thought the final was to be in a neutral venue.  As long as that draw is done fairly quickly (up to a week) after the regular Euro 2020 qualifiers so fans involved have several months to make travel arrangements (both for the definite SF and prospective final). Fair enough if the draw is done timely enough. But it would still be a very short time before you can firm up any possible booking. Let's use your example and just say the draw has been made 4 weeks prior to the semis that the final will be played at the home of the winner of semi 2 (Austria v Russia). And we're in Semi 1.  (Ireland v Denmark) This means that should we win our semi, we would have to travel to either Cardiff or Moscow. The first being easy enough short term, the latter being a nightmare short notice as there are also visa requirements etc.  We win our grudge match against the Danes, and Russia deal Wales another nightmare loss at home at the final hurdle. Meaning we get a Russia v Ireland final in Moscow. And we get 3 days to sort ourselves out to get there....   This is exactly what I'm getting at... its bananas!

Will they not just pick a Brussels or Paris or Basel etc to host the final?
Once you know the 4 semi finalists you can do the 1v4 and 2v3 so you know the venues and all 4 teams know that if they win they play in a neutral ground?

**If the 4 semi finalists are Ireland Wales Scotland Norn Iron, final is in London.
If 4 semi finalists are Serbia Croatia Greece Bulgaria, then you pick somewhere in that neck of the woods.
Somewhere central from each of the 4 teams.

This nations league gets more and more confusing the more you look into it Should have just left it as it was . I always look forward to playing Oman !!!

On the face of it its a farce alright.

OohAah... wrote: On the face of it its a farce alright. Supposing a team does get a play off spot from the Nations League. Then arguably they wont put as much effort into qualifications and arguably treat the qualifications as freindlies. Either that or teams will forgoe any real effort in the Nations league and just wait for qualification proper(probably knowing one of the bigger sides wont give 2 sh*ts about it)  the evidence will be in the pullouts ahead of the nations league matches from the bigger clubs, as clubs will also struggle to rationalise the importance of it However what was wrong with the way it was and opening up another spot in the groups is beyond me.

Edited by PanamaHat - 17 Nov 2017 at 4:38pm

OohAah... wrote: On the face of it its a farce alright. Supposing a team does get a play off spot from the Nations League. Then arguably they wont put as much effort into qualifications and arguably treat the qualifications as freindlies. Either that or teams will forgoe any real effort in the Nations league and just wait for qualification proper(probably knowing one of the bigger sides wont give 2 sh*ts about it)  the evidence will be in the pullouts ahead of the nations league matches from the bigger clubs, as clubs will also struggle to rationalise the importance of it However what was wrong with the way it was and opening up another spot in the groups is beyond me.

Logistically, having the playoffs in a neutral venue makes sense. Practically, it doesn't. All the qualification games are played on a home and away basis, why should the playoffs be different? It's not much different to playing in Lille one day, then playing in Lyon a few days later.

My biggest concern is not knowing until 10 weeks before the finals, who we're playing if we've qualified, and whether we'll qualify or not if we're in the playoffs. Having playoffs that late in the day is good for tv, but crap for football.

GB 1HughJarse wrote: In our mini group of 3 teams in the Nations League, we need to finish 1st or 2nd. If we finish 1st or 2nd we are guaranteed to be a 2nd seed for the proper Euro 2020 qualifying campaign draw. If we finish 3rd in our mini league, we are guaranteed to be a 3rd seed for the draw.

And if you finishes 3rd do you not get relegrated to the lower divsion when the competition is next played ???

Charlton's Child wrote: GB 1HughJarse wrote: In our mini group of 3 teams in the Nations League, we need to finish 1st or 2nd. If we finish 1st or 2nd we are guaranteed to be a 2nd seed for the proper Euro 2020 qualifying campaign draw. If we finish 3rd in our mini league, we are guaranteed to be a 3rd seed for the draw. And if you finishes 3rd do you not get relegrated to the lower divsion when the competition is next played ???

Correct. Relegated to league C for the 2022 WC.