The European football governing body has set the year 2018 to put to the centre stage, the UEFA Nations League, which will replace international friendlies to a competition format to serve as qualifications for the World Cup.
The competition would be in a League format, which woul see promotion and relegation of teams, to make a comprehensive and competitive football environment in Europe.
Although the precise format of the competition is yet to be decided, Uefa’s provisional plan is to divide all 54 member association teams into four groups based on coefficient ranking, with promotion to a higher group or even a qualifying place at the European
Championship – the prize for performing well.
Wolfgang Niersbach, chairman of the National Teams Competition Committee, is confident the move is the right way forward to spark interest in European international football outside of the major tournaments.
“We accept and respect that all Uefa member
associations have agreed to create a new competition,”
he said at the Ordinary Uefa Congress in Astana. “This
is a big step for national teams in Europe and we hope
that fans will support the new format.”
The transition into the new Nations League will begin as qualifying for Euro 2020 gets underway in the autumn of 2018.
Uefa states that the four large coefficient groups will be further split into three or four smaller pools, with each team playing four to six matches between September and November of that year.
A further competition featuring the pool winners will then take place early the following year, well before the play-off round for the Euro 2020 finals, which are planned for March 2020.
Uefa secretary general Gianni Infantino stated prior to the congress: “What has triggered this whole discussion is that we have been working to establish a new international calendar. We also wanted to bring
more structure to the dates when there are friendly matches.
“There are some countries everyone wants to play
against and other teams who struggle to find
opponents, so we looked for something new and have
come up with the Nations League.”
The move is the latest significant reform adopted by Uefa president Michel Platini, following his decision to stage the Euro 2020 finals across the continent in a “romantic” celebration of the tournament’s 60th anniversary.