I think UEFA should make a cup for level 2 national teams like Europa League so people don't you agree with me.
A European competition for 2nd tier sides? i am not sure. It would be fantastic to see that happen but UEFA wont introduce it. Basically i think both the Champions League and Europa League should be the only european compeitions for club but this is football you never know? imagine Plymouth Argyle v UD Las Palmas haha i would pay to see that no problem!! come back to me on a format for this competition and maybe submit it to UEFA?
I'm not sure he meant a cup for second flight clubs. The way he worded it, it likely means a cup for Northern Ireland, San Marino, & Luxembourg, but excluded bigger countries' national teams.
no thanks. uefa would probably use it as a stepping stone to sidelining smaller nations out of all the major competitions.
I think it's a decent idea. I've always thought the smaller nations should have to qualify for the qualifying rounds of the euros/world cup. Fed up with England playing Andorra On the other hand, Andorra would never qualify, and I'd probably end up missing them.
it'd be very interesting to have a 2nd tier world cup for team getting knocked out in playoffs etc. opportunity for FIFA to make more money. opportunity for more players to showcase their skills. opportunities for more fans seeing their team play international football. it's a great idea
It is a great idea.. It could work as well, take the teams that missed the Euro Competition and seed them. 16/54 UEFA teams qualified for the Euro 2012, take the remaining 16 or so and make a tourny..
If a 2nd tier club competition attracts ample attention/money, I trust a 2nd tier NT competition would equally work. The trouble is when to schedule such a tournament. And more importantly, you can count on clubs being vehemently opposed to releasing yet more players for international duty. So while economically and in sports terms I think such tournaments would be attrative, I see a major political problem in regards to club opposition. As for a B-type EURO, as the EURO is moving to a 24-team format more sides will get a chance to play in the big event as of 2016. If it were up to me and I could leave aside practicality-issues, I'd prefer two tournaments with 16 sides each. The lesser tournament involving the runners-up who failed to qualify for the main tournament. But who'd host such a tournament? That's tricky as you'd want the host nation to be involved, so as to spur spectator interest in the competition. One good thing about such a two-tiered EURO would be that qualification wouldn't be as easy as it's going to be with 24 teams. For the top teams, qualification will be a cakewalk from 2016 onwards.
I think the discussion here is about second-tier teams, i.e. the ones who narrowly fail to qualify for the EURO. Andorra & Co - with their largely amateur sides - are more like fourth tier. My guess is that political reasons weigh heavily against a preliminary round to qualifying for the EURO qualifications group-stage. Why? Those tiny nations also have votes. And isn't is "one country=one vote" in UEFA? As in FIFA? I'm pretty sure those tiny nations desperately want to play big nations on a regular basis rather than being relegated to playing against fellow-minnows. Just don't see any UEFA President being willing to piss off a dozen or so voting FAs... As for myself, I think those NT trips to exotic places like the Faroe Islands are fun! You always get interesting stories about amateur players, fun stadiums, etc. It's got a bit of the same flair that say the DFB-Pokal has here in Germany. Giants vs Minnows makes for interesting stories.
tell you what, and this is an equally preposterous suggestion, instead of picking on smaller nations solely because they are smaller, how about dividing national teams of nations with bigger populations into a number of smaller teams? yeah, didn't think you'd like that one.
Seems like a good idea, and fairly simple to implement.... so I'm sure it won't happen. Of course some of these countries could always jump ship to the N.F. Board.
Asia btw has such a competition for 2nd and 3rd tier NTs. Called AFC Challenge Cup or something like that. Winner qualifies for the Asian Cup. That's how India qualified.
UEFA had 37 countries miss Euro 2012 and that will go down to 29 when the Euro expands. How would UEFA do a competition like that and when within the four year cycle? The Summer in between the World Cup and the following Euro like 2015? Even without lesser countries being able to qualify through the Challenge Cup, the worst Asian Cup country would be far inferior to the worst Euro 2016 country.
NOT COOL that is anti-smaller nation talk. That means smaller nations have no chance to directly qualify or possibly be a Cinderella or pull off a big upset against a large well known NT because they wont' have a chance to play them. Let them play just like everybody else. Northern Ireland, Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein, Faroe islands have every much a right to qualify and have the same path to make the WC as a Germany or Spain should have.
Countries like Scotland lobbied UEFA on getting the EURO expanded to 24 teams. And the no-hopers (e.g. Azerbaidjan, Macedonia, Andorra etc) equally lobby for the status quo when it comes to the EURO/FIFA qualifications. They don't want to be relegated to some 2nd tier. Why? Because they'd lose a boatload of money and interest since a game vs. say Germany is a lot more lucrative than against say the Faroe Islands. One needs to remember that in UEFA and FIFA, each national FA has one vote. So smaller football nations can very effectively guard their interests. NO FIFA or UEFA boss will get elected, who doesn't vow to protect the little ones' interests (hence also the lump sum money transfers, which each FA gets. That's massive for the small FAs - that's how Blatter & Platini get their votes). So, while big nation coaches like Löw have gone on record that they'd prefer a format change for good reasons from their perspective, it's simply not politically feasible. The smaller football nations simply won't allow it. And considering their weight in football politics, this is a non-starter. As for a cup for those who failed to qualify for the 24-team EURO, well, I doubt it would financially be too lucrative. So that may be a reason why there isn't one in Europe (unlike in Asia, which has such a tournament and awards its winner a place in the Asian cup (that's how India qualified for the last tournament).