Impact of Nations Leagues (UEFA original, Concacaf) on World Football? [Multiple R]

So the top 10 nations in the preliminary NL qualifying round will qualify for the 2019 Gold Cup, but it isn't quite clear how the NL proper will be linked to the Gold Cup or World Cup qualifications. Or did I miss something?

Anyway, good to see that Canada (or anyone for that matter) doesn't get an automatic spot in every Gold Cup.

 

In the interest of making the NL actually meaningful, instead of just an excuse to stage more US v Mexico matches, I like the idea of extending a berth to one league “C” team, especially since the Gold Cup is expanding. And for the same reason, I would also be against the idea of having every league “A” team qualify automatically.

The question arises, will the teams in league B & C be grouped regionally to minimize travel? Regional grouping would also be a way to ensure a certain # of countries from the Caribbean would qualify for the Gold Cup.

So it could get complicated….

Yeah good point. Especially since, in the end, they would wind-up qualifying most times even if they have to work for it.

 

The Caribbean went up from 4 to 4.5 Gold Cup spots out of 12. 4.5 is 3/8ths. If the North American and Central American countries including Guatemala all qualified to a 16 team Gold Cup, that would be 10, so the Caribbean is guaranteed at least 6. 6/16 is 3/8ths.

 

Good point. Looks like they can de-link the Caribben Cup from Gold Cup qualifying permanently, as they are already doing for 2019.

I still wouldn't want to see every League A team qualify for the Gold Cup automatically. Maybe just the top 8 from league A, top 4 from league B and one team from league C. The next best six teams could enter a playoff to determine the remaining 3 spots.

 

Just a note, especially for those that thought the NL might lead to more isolation / reduce inter-confederation friendlies and just lead to the same top teams playing each other over and over. Here is a list of some of the friendlies scheduled later this month:

- Germany x Spain
- Netherlands x England
- Portugal x Netherlands
- England x Italy

As one can see, England really making the most of this pre-WC int'l break to gain experience playing teams from the opposite corners of the globe.

 

Lets keep it that way.

That said, if there is a fake Centenario then they could use the 2019-2020 Nations League as a means of qualifying to determine the six CONCACAF representatives. The timing would work-out very well and it would add significantly to the importance of league A matches.
You could have, say, the 4 league A group winners qualify directly and have a playoff between the 4 second-place teams to determine the final two spots. Would really make the CONCACAF NL relevant from the get-go.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/09/sports/soccer/fifa-club-world-cup.html?smid=re-share

 

That should be posted in the Club World Cup expansion thread too.

 

The thread in the link below?

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/ru...ions-cup-to-end.2035241/page-14#post-36496639

 

The complaints about the possible isolation of matches in Europe mostly came before the schedule was set up. Once it was made clear that there would be open windows for friendlies that issue went pretty much out the window.

 

Why wouldn't they? These matches are meant to be fully competitive and not friendlies (that was the whole point of the initiative) and thus count as any other competitive match.

 

So will having the NL hurt UEFA teams in the FIFA rankings? At first glance it appears that it might. We've seen the negative impact that scheduling friendlies can have on country's ranking. NL matches will be worth more than friendlies, but less than WC & Euro qualifiers.

 

Yea but that was because the old system took the average of all points gained/lost from matches meaning friendlies almost always was a net negative. That effect is gone now though so even if a NL win is worth less than a qualifier win it will still be a net positive. Of course the NL will mean more matches against teams of similar strength and not every team can win every match so it is very possible that some teams will lose points/spots in the rankings.

 

The new system is an ELO type system where points are swapped in matches based on the difference between the result and the predicted result. All the weighting system does is make the points swap relatively smaller.

 

Unfortunately the match they showed here in the USA was not better than a friendly in my opinion.
I would have rather have seen France and Germany in a Friendly.

 

I haven't read that they will. Considering the low I factor, 15, my best guess is that NL games are viewed the same as friendlies. NL games replace friendlies after all (and UEFA stressed that these games aren't part of the qualis). The Final 4, same I factor as qualis, might then leave players cap-tied (or not, who knows).