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

Friendlies had the purpose of testing players or tactics with a team being built up. You need those to go into qualifiers and win.
Club teams play friendlies for the same purpose.
So where does it now come from to install new players/style/tactics?
They werenot superfluous, the had a meaning.
The tournement isnot the start, the qualifiers are and thus you need to prepare for them....by friendlies.

 

With everything expanding - WC field, continental tournaments, Nations league playoffs - this once true statement has become a lot less true.

We can't pretend that the first match of a Nations league group phase where the top 50% of teams in the group can make the playoffs/get promoted means much more than a traditional friendly.

Preseason club games are also often part of little tournaments. But we still call them friendles, because that's what they are.

 

Club teams play 3 to 4 friendlies for every ~50 competitive matches. You don't need 3 friendlies to warm up for 6 qualifying games, including 2 against Gibraltar. .

 

I don't get what you mean here

Neither do I understand this part.
I mentioned the club preseason friendlies as an example for why natioal teams need friendlies too.
I was referring to clubs having friendlies to prepare for the upcoming season as a necesity, not for preseason's tournements. Those preseason club tournements are part of those friendly matches. The club's "non" friendly matches are the clubs ational league and cup and the UEFA club competitions. These are the serious matches the preseason club games are a prep for.

 

Uhm, Dutch clubs play about triple that amount AND friendly practice matches even during the competition behind closed doors, quite often against German or Belgian clubs. During the season iirc Feyenoord had about 7 friendlies.

 

What I mean is, for e.g., the group phase games of the UEFA Nations League have less importance since UEFA expanded the playoffs in the UNL and even made it possible for 2nd-place teams to get promoted. I would classify such group games as basically warm-up games for the UNL playoffs and/or WC/Euro qualifiers. Managers can use UNL group games to tinker with tactics, try different players, etc.

 

There's the backdoor path to World Cup or Euro qualifying that also serves as motivation. Four teams are still in the World Cup playoffs solely because they won their groups in League C.

 

Sure, but that doesn't mean the UNL group stage matches are so important that there isn't plenty of opportunities to rotate players and tinker with tactics.
I'm just going by what I am seeing from many of the teams. They are not just playing their strongest XI game after game in the UNL.

 

In a 48 a team World Cup with 32 making the group stage, with teams like, well I won’t name any; the group phase will have many friendlies.

 

That is what some of us expect, but FIFA is adamant it won't happen and that the new format will demonstrate the extent of global competitiveness.

Ler's hope they're right.

 

In any case, national teams have time to play about 3 friendlies in the first 10-12 days of June, just before the WC kicks off. Considering clubs typically play about 4-5 friendlies before the start of a 50-game season, 3 friendlies before a 4-game tournament (on average) seems sufficient. And most WC teams will have time to schedule 2 more friendlies in late March. That's 5 friendlies in the 10 weeks ahead of the WC

 

Three words for you: Mexico + molero + futbol
Paste them into any web search engine and enjoy MEX's historical hellscape of *molero friendlies*.

Throughout the Americas, fans know very well that all friendlies are not created equal: plenty of friendlies which serve no purpose besides lining someone's pockets with cash.

Things are so bad now that they have made it into C'BOL qualifiers: for the past 2 qualifying cycles, ECU fed moved its last home qualifiers match away from high-altitude Quito to its expensive port city of Guayaquil.
With qualification secured, ECU turned its competitive qualifiers home matches vs ARG into friendly cash-grab events. No doubt ARG appreciates ECU's *generosity*.

 

I don't like the lack of intercontinental matches. Uruguay basically can't play European teams outside the World Cup.

 

The lack of intercontinental friendlies makes the World Cup more interesting though.

 

Yeah, and they still have opportunity to schedule intercontinental matches in at least the 2 FIFA windows leading up to a World Cup, which is the only time such friendlies are needed IMO. In fact, a quick check reveals that Uruguay played 4 intercontinental friendlies last Oct and Nov, and now top UEFA teams are available in the upcoming March and June windows. France for e.g. will play Brazil and Colombia in the US in March.

 

I know that Uruguay regularly plays Mexico and USA, and player the odd Asian and African team.

But still we rarely play European teams. I know that we can't play Italy and Spain every year, but this is ridiculous.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I wasn't aware that the slot distribution for the next WC had been confirmed by FIFA.

Given that this is the first edition with the 48-team format, I'd have thought some adjustment to the distribution might be made depending on performance.

For example, if all 16 UEFA teams qualify for the knockout stage, surely that would be rewarded with at least an inter-confederation playoff place from which UEFA teams were excluded for 2026.

 

The allocation for the next world cup hasn't been officially confirmed by FIFA but Concacaf calendar release sort of confirms that Concacaf will retain 6 full spots + 1 play-off team

UEFA will get at least 1 play-off team for the next cycle as part of the "host" confederation.

However it at least seems that the current allocation will continue for the 2030 world cup without taking into account world cup results.

I wouldn't bet on UEFA having 16 teams on the knock out stages tho, last world cup they had 3 teams (Wales, Denmark and Serbia) finishing dead last and 3 teams finishing last in 2018 (Iceland, Germany, Poland)

 

Yes, that inference seems right.

This time UEFA teams will face generally weaker opposition from the Rest of the World as a consequence of it getting virtually all of the additional places so I am fairly confident the entire UEFA delegation will advance.