The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is thinking of changing the League of Nations, which will start in September 2018, to make it intercontinental. However, no decision has been made yet. Several papers reported on the story on Friday. The Belgian Football Union (URBSFA) told the Belga agency it hadn’t heard about any possible changes.
UEFA is considering turning the European competition into a “Global Nations League”, a sort of mini World Cup. This would bring in more money through televised retransmissions. German newspaper Das Bild says UEFA President Aleksan der Ceferin would like to include countries that are not part of UEFA from 2021. In the “Global Nations League”, the countries would be split into seven divisions according to their FIFA ranking. This idea is part of a larger plan to reform international friendly matches. The International Football Federation (FIFA) and UEFA told the German press agency DPA that “we are currently having constructive discussions about the next phases in the plan”.
Starting in September 2018, the League of Nations will pit 55 European Nations against each other in four leagues (A, B, C, D) according to their UEFA ranking. There will be a system of promotion or relegation for the first and last four in each league. The four leagues will be divided into four groups of three or four teams. These groups will be decided by a draw on the 24th of January 2018. Belgium is in League A, with the best nations in Europe. The biggest advantage of this new form of international friendly is that four teams can automatically qualify for Euro 2020.
The top four in each league (16 teams) will go through to a semi-final round, if they are not one of the 20 teams to qualify for Euro 2020 via the traditional group match phase. The winners of the four finals will qualify for Euro 2020.
(Source: Belga)
