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27th Mar 2014

Meaningless friendlies under threat as UEFA announce new League of Nations competition

UEFA have today announced plans for a new international tournament to start in 2018.

Eric Lalor

UEFA have today announced plans for a new tournament to start in 2018.

It is said that there is no such thing as a meaningless friendly. UEFA’s plan here is to make that a reality. It’s a competition designed to replace most international friendly fixtures with the added attraction of four qualifying spots at Euro 2020.

UEFA are still working on the finer details of the format but their plan is to have four divisions – sub-divided into four smaller pools – with each division to have a ‘final four’ competition between the winners of each pool.

Republic of Ireland v Latvia - International Friendly

There will be promotion and relegation between divisions and the tournament will replace most international friendly fixtures, with pool matches played between September and November 2018 and the ‘final four’ competition for each division played in 2019.

The incentive for participating teams is qualification to Euro 2020 which will be played across 13 major cities in Europe. We here at JOE think it’s a good idea and, if it works, it should make practically all matches competitive. Martin and Roy might have to apply for over-time though.