New league to increase pressure on O’Neill

Success in their Ireland jobs for Martin O’Neill and Roy Keane yesterday became a lot more than just about qualifying for Euro 2016 following confirmation by Uefa of a new Nations League from 2018.

Fri, 28 Mar, 2014 - 00:00

John Fallon

The concept, to replace most friendly internationals, will involve the 54 European nations divided into four divisions, with another subset of pools within these.

Although all countries under the auspices of Uefa unanimously backed the overhaul at its congress in Kazakhstan, it won’t be until late 2017 when they discover which of them become winners and losers due to the switch.

That will be the juncture, following completion of the qualifying series for World Cup 2018, at which coefficient rankings determine into which of the four divisions each country is placed.

As it stands, based on their latest coefficient of 19, Ireland would be placed in Division B amongst the teams with coefficients between 13 and 25. It is unclear yet whether Uefa intends to conduct a draw for the mini-groups or simply allocate them in descending order.

Either way, it leaves Ireland dining well away from the top table.

Once England consign one of Irish football’s most horrific nights to history by fulfilling a friendly date next June, the incidence of top-ranked nations gracing Lansdowne Road outside of qualifiers will also be no more than just a memory.

Gone too will be the upside of television and ticket revenue attached to such glamour fixtures. As only competitive fixtures for the Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018 qualifiers count towards Ireland’s coefficient, the pressure for the new dream team to deliver carries added importance.

O’Neill and Keane will certainly have to engineer competitive victories over countries seeded above Ireland, something predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni failed to do during his five-year reign, to contemplate navigating within reach of top echelon airspace.

Conversely, draws or even defeats — coupled with a surge from the chasing pack in divisions C or D — would have the net effect of plummeting Ireland into the backwaters of a third tier inhabited at present by the likes of Belarus, Latvia and Armenia.

One can only imagine the Irish public’s appetite, or otherwise, for tickets to those internationals.

FAI chief executive John Delaney, speaking yesterday from the congress in Astana, telegraphed an upbeat note, however, insisting the incentive to secure one of the four ‘wildcard’ entries into major tournaments through this system would take supporters’ fancy.

“This league of nations will be played on a promotion and relegation basis and it also allows wildcard entry into the European Championships and World Cup,” he said. “These matches will have consequences and looked upon in a more positive light than friendlies.”

Once the mini-groups are discovered, teams will face each other home and away between September and December 2018. Then matters become more complicated.

Not until after the World Cup qualifiers have kicked off in March 2019 will the winners of the ‘Nations League’ groups compete in divisional semi-finals and final at a neutral venue. That decides merely which nations win the division, gets the trophy and earns promotion.

It is only after 20 places for the Euro 2020 finals are filled through the normal qualifying system that the four remaining slots are up for grabs in March 2020 through play-offs.

If a team have already qualified through the conventional format, the play-off place goes to the country finishing immediately below them in that division.

League of Nations: What you need to know

The basics

- There will be four divisions, each containing 12-14 teams, based on Uefa’s coefficients.

- Spain and other top European sides will be in Division A while Ireland, based upon their current coefficient, would be in Division B.

- Each division will have four mini-leagues — so Ireland would play three or four other Division B teams on a home-and-away basis between September and December 2018. There will be promotion/relegation between the four divisions.

n- The winners of each mini-league go into the division’s semi-finals and then final at a neutral venue in June 2019.

- Through the Euro 2020 qualifiers played from March 2019, 20 teams will be decided via the usual qualifying group.

- In March 2020, the top four teams in each Nations League division will play off for the four remaining Euro 2020 qualifications places, with one team from each division qualifying for the European Championship.

- If a team have already qualified, the play-off place goes to the country finishing immediately below them in that division.

- Two of Europe’s 13 qualifying places for the 2022 World Cup may also be decided via the top two divisions of the Nations League.

- Based upon current coefficients, this is how the inaugural Uefa Nations League may look.

DIVISION A

Mini-League A1: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy.

Mini-League A2: England, Portugal, Greece, Russia.

Mini-League A3: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, France, Croatia.

DIVISION B

Mini-League B1: Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium.

Mini-League B2: Czech Republic, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Serbia.

Mini-League B3: Turkey, Slovenia, Israel.

Mini-League B4: Norway, Slovakia, Romania.