Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
The World Cup may have just ended in July and the domestic seasons for Europe's top five leagues has just begun, but September will see the return of international fixtures. This September's UEFA Nations League will kick off on September 6 as the football federation interrupts the domestic season with an all-new competition. Sports fans can enjoy the new UEFA Nations League by betting on football online. It will bring supporters closer to the action they love.
The first ever UEFA Nations League kicks off in September. The league format of the tournament will last until November with the league finals taking place in June 2019. The tournament was conceived by FIFA to give international teams more matches during the year. Some have criticised UEFA for adding another competition to an already congested football calendar. However, others claim the competition will give more meaningful international matches for players to compete in.
The Nations League will have all 55 UEFA members participating in the tournament. The teams are divided up into four leagues: A, B, C, and D. These leagues are further broken down into four groups. Depending on the league, groups vary in the number of teams they contain. For example, most of League C and League D have four teams in each group.
Teams have been placed in their groups due to their UEFA rankings following World Cup qualification. The leagues and groups have been organised due to these rankings. Therefore, football fans will see the top ranked teams play each other in the early part of the tournament. At the same time, football watchers will see the worst teams in the UEFA rankings play each other as well.
Only the teams from League A will compete in the UEFA Nations League finals. Due to their post-World Cup qualifying rankings, these 12 teams were placed in League A. The tournament's leagues will work like a domestic competition in which the teams that finish last in their three team (or four team) groups will be relegated to the league below. League A will feature: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Spain, England, and Croatia.
Fans and pundits alike won't much enjoy the added football matches to the UEFA calendar. In addition, international fixtures kicking off so close to the end of the World Cup and beginning of the top domestic leagues starting in Europe won't sit well with many either. However, the UEFA Nations League does offer something different to football fans. On paper, the tournament is supposed to give more high-quality international fixtures for fans to enjoy. Although there are already the World Cup and European Championships, UEFA believes the Nations League will give fans a chance to watch more interesting international matches.
The UEFA Nations League's success or failure this year will determine whether it continues into the future. It is an interesting concept, but fans will be the judges of whether the tournament is going to thrive.
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