I don't think it needs all of them. But Romania and Sweden should be favorites to do so. Along with all of A and likely most of not all of B
I'm hoping for some major upsets in nations League A just to send Germany down to pot 2 and England being drawn in their group to appease the football gods lol
I don't follow AFC club competitions but from what I recall A-League clubs haven't done particularly well in them recently which suggests difficulty in producing talent which would then be available to the NT. I also don't recall Australia qualifying for any of the recent FIFA youth competitions.
We played terrible in the second half. Our players got frustrated at the delaying tactics of Bahrain (you would think none of them have seen a team doing that before) and started giving away stupid fouls, getting unnecessary yellow cards and then a red card. Then gave up a an 89th minute own goal from a deflected cross. You would be correct.
I agree. UEFA WCQ qualification format has downgraded. While some may argue the fewer number of games may lead to more upsets the problem is the big number of groups. 12 teams to form a pot is just too much. The disaprity between the best and the worst side in each group is too big. It sets up for highly uneven groups. The luck of the draw always played a role. But this time I feel it's enhanced.
I like Nations League I really do but modifying the WC groups to make UNL more relevant is annoying. I don't mind the 4 extra spots for the Euro. In a WC cycle don't have a Nation League. 16 participants is top 2 in groups of 6 and 7 teams when it comes to WC qualifying or how it used to be for the Euros
On the other hand Australia were 4th in the Olympic table despite a population of just 26 million, they were 5th in total medals, and first in medals per capita for a country with more than 10 million, despite being cheated out of a break dancing gold. They're also ranked #1 in the world at they're 3 biggest domestic sports, though hardly anyone plays 2 of them. Probably the world's best overall sporting nation says this miserable pom.
While the Nations League is an interesting concept and surely has some benefits for teams of a certain level I don't like that UEFA imposes it on all teams by blowing it up so much. These quarterfinals and relegeation/promotion playoffs are overkill. I don't like the idea that you play in a cycle as many games in the Nations League as in WCQ. If you play the quarterfinals or the promotion/relegation playoffs odds are enchanced you play even more Nations League games in a cycle than WCQ games. Nations League is in my eyes just a back-up competition. It replaces menaingless friendlies and gives lesser sides the opportunity to test themselves more and enjoy some success. But it shouldn't be overblown. WCQ is the bread and butter for most European teams and its format shouldn't be revamped too much. I don't accept qualifying groups of four. It's too small. I'm absolutely against that. 6 games to qualify for an event as massive as the World Cup? Nah. Please UEFA bring back the groups of five and groups of six and shorten the Nations league by scrapping these unnecessary quarterfinals and promotion/relegation playoffs.
Yeah I can imagine. For a 'Socceroos' fan it was a super frustrating watch. Bahrain didn't cheat. But they managed to make the game scrappy, not allowing any sort of flow and they saw that the referee was one that would whistle a lot of fouls instead of letting it play. Bahrain did everything in their power. Props to them. But they didn't deserve to win. A draw would have been fair.
Criticising UNL reminds me of the arguments people make for scrapping domestic cup competitions despite them having an integral role in each country's football ecosystem.
Specifically, we are just criticizing the extra round of pro/rel playoffs in the UNL. I haven't a clue how that reminds you of domestic cup tournaments that are 100+ years old.
QFs and pro/rel playoffs will help elevate the profile of the UNL and ensure no team has to play in the Final Four after it has begun the European Qualifiers, as was the case hitherto. MD1 of the current UNL shows teams play as committed as they do in qualifiers, which is understandable given that it is effectively a pre-qualifier (for eight of the places in Pot One, for FIFA world ranking points and for the 2028 European Qualifiers draw, which will only be based on the 2026-27 UNL group stage ranking).
As a Swiss fan, the introduction of the UNL has been a very welcome addition for me. Because of it, we got to play competitive games against the following elite sides in League A: 2018-2019 Belgium (2) Portugal England 2020-2021 Spain (2) Germany (2) 2022-2023 Spain (2) Portugal (2) 2024-2025 Spain (2) I think it's part of the reason we have been knocking at the semis for two consecutive Euros now, only to be denied by penalties. Compare to that to the dire friendlies before the UNL and it's a no-brainer for us. The more such games, the better. Even if they turn out to be relegation playoffs instead of quarterfinals.
People will find out next year that the effect of the UNL expansion into the March window of odd years on the European Qualifiers will be positive with more teams contesting automatic and/or playoff places in the group rankings well into the autumn windows, notwithstanding that the first four pots will feature 12 teams each. Compare to countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam and their relatively little competitive action outside of the Asian Cup (if they qualify for it).
Horrible performance from the Socceroos. Coach Arnold would have known what to expect against the likes of Bahrain. Same thing happened to all our games in the Asian Cup back in January where we also struggled. We simply don’t have the creative types to unlock a ‘park the bus’ defence. Our midfielders are mostly workhorses. We don’t have a decent striker either. Australia are at its best when underdogs playing against superior opponents like what happened in Qatar. Full credit to Bahrain though. Middle Eastern countries are getting better, smarter and play with great passion. We have 9 more games to go in this phase rectify the damage. Need to pick up away points to Japan and Saudi Arabia now and not drop any more points at home to finish top 2.
it is sort of an mixture .... little bit of everything while League B&C games will hardly have any any impact on seeding for the qualifiers, winners of the groups get a good chance for playoffs, therefore for (some of) them it is definitely worth playing seriously. not even sure it is going to be League C winners only. one or another League B winner might well slip out of top 2 in their WC qqualifying group. yepp, that is correct, but it still stays significant disadvantage
There is no doubt that the situation within UEFA is better in terms of teams being able to regularly play other good teams and/or teams near their own level. Only CONMEBOL region can even remotely compare. My only point was that the additional round of UNL playoffs adds no value. If anything, it takes away from the competition within UEFA. For e.g. the games being played these past few days have much less meaning than they did under the previous UNL format. GER v NED barely carries more weight than a friendly. So, we have backtracked. Moreover, the extra round of playoffs isn't really replacing friendlies. Its more accurate to say they are replacing WC qualifying games.
I alluded to this before but Switzerland is such an odd team to figure out. On any given day they can compete with some really great teams. Then they lay an egg and get absolutely pummeled like they did against Portugal in the WC and now against Spain in the NL. Just makes me scratch my head.
the biggest issue is that number of (more or less) significant games is increasing rapidly. soon enough injury time will be the only time where players get some rest. world football calender looks awful meanwhile with hardly any rest for anyone!
It's the little things that derail above average non-elite sides. Switzerland is no different. Like missing a key player, Granit Xhaka in this case. Although I would argue "pummeled" is a bit relative here. Spain's opening goal had no goal-line technology for confirmation and whatever camera angles were shown could not clear it up beyond doubt. Same for our equalizer right after halftime where supposedly the corner-kick ball crossed over the line in the air. Add in the nonsensical (first) red card in Copenhagen and we have had a rough week with referee decisions. But that's how it is sometimes and now we are looking at a dog fight with Serbia to avoid direct relegation. And with the new format third place in the group is just temporary survival, setting up a playoff with someone from League B. In my view the addition of the quarterfinals/playoffs has added the missing piece to the competition. Every game counts now.