Feel free to close or delete this thread if it's too early for that yet. The final submissions for the bid to host Euro 2025 will be submitted in October with the winner being announced in December. Poland, France, Switzerland-Liechtenstein jointly and all the Scandinavian countries jointly except Iceland have confirmed their bids. Ukraine's bid is uncertain amidst the ongoing war. So far there doesn't seem to be any information anywhere on when the qualifying draw will take place or when the qualifiers will even start. If someone here knows that, please let us know.
It should be a 4 years calendar 2023-27. And whenever FIFA feels like it. Their bi-annual world cup plan had been shelved, so they went back to the drawing board, so whenever they feel like it.
Ok but the host(s) for Euro 2025 will be announced in December so the qualifying draw should be in January then with qualifying games starting in March or April? I'm just trying to figure out their calendar.
🇪🇺UEFA has begun planning a Nations League for women’s football, following the same format as the men.(@relevo) pic.twitter.com/Zdw2G4FmSv— Women’s Transfer News (@womenstransfer) September 13, 2022
I presume the calendar will look like this: September, October, November 2023 is nations league. February, April, June, September, October 2024 women's euro qualifiers with most being groups of 5 so there can be a nations league finals in June 2024 and then in November 2024 will be the women's euros playoffs using the bracket knockout format.
Seems weird and unusual not to have anything but friendly games from November 2022 to September 2023 just because of the Nations League.
I believe the Nations League format will be used for the qualifiers rather than replacing friendlies. League A teams qualify, League B teams try to get promoted for the next cycle
But that will mean less official matches over the 1+ year period of qualifying, they should probably go all in and use the same system as the men's, otherwise we will be stuck with the same old problems.
It's not like the men's Nations League is popular and loved by fans, players and coaches, quite the opposite actually. I don't think a Women's Nations League will do anything to improve women's football, the attention it gets, the quality of play. As for (meaningless) friendlies, they haven't managed to completely get rid of them through the Nations League as that was apparently the main reason for introducing it in the first place.
But do you think that for next cycle we will see 3 fifa windows for nations league and then 6 windows for euro qualifying plus playoffs?, or what is the alternative which minimizes friendly matches?.
What do you mean "windows"? I think if the Nations League is created for women's football then they should do it similarly to the men's one but I am against the project anyways. I have no alternative, I am not necessarily in favor of minimizing friendly matches, they don't annoy me nor do I think there's too many of them or that they are useless. The Nations League was largely done to please the English who complained about playing friendlies in a half-empty Wembley stadium.
The only things we know about the 2023-25 cycle is those games at the end of 2023. 2 games 18-26 September 2 games 23-31 October 2 games 27 Nov - 5 December In all logic, these dates should be set for the Euros 2025 qualifiers. It's all about the formatting of the groups in the Nations League format. It depends on how many groups and teams per group in League A and B.
In all of 2024 there would be the traditional qualifying, with the nations league being an addition with a backdoor to a playoff spot
Not really a fan of Nations League but I quite like the idea if Nations League replaces the UEFA qualifiers. Would be more evenly matched teams pitted against eachother. Most of the qualifiers are just too uneven and of 0 interest anyway.
Of all confeds, UEFA doesn't have to worry about losing a few official matches. They do plenty already - sometimes too much, so losing a few isn't a bad idea - and a Nations League is a better development system than the current format is because it gives every team consistently competitive matches. Besides, if the WoSo NL uses five-team groups in each league, which might be the best idea if there's only an A and a B (i.e. no other levels), then it's not actually a difference in matches. It's all TBD depending on what the exact format is.
Thank you! So Euro 2025 qualifiers (or Nations League perhaps?) would start in February 2023? Seems a bit strange.
February will see the usual four nations tournaments all over the world plus the intercontinental play-offs and the finalissima.