League of Nations

Not the greatest draw. I might go to Croatia probably give Spain a miss.

Fixture list is confirmed today.

I thought that too.

I mean, what does a former province of the Netherlands have to do with an international football tournament?

Early rumours that Spain will play their home matches at Atletico new stadium.

really hope nobody booked accomodation or flights for croatia away game uefa have just confirmed that the match will be played behind closed doors

on england fa website;

UEFA has today issued the following statement regarding England's UEFA Nations League fixture against Croatia on Friday 12 October 2018
UEFA can confirm that the UEFA Nations League group stage match between Croatia and England scheduled for 12 October 2018 will be played behind closed doors. This relates back to a decision taken by the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body on 23 July 2015 which ordered the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) to play its next two home matches in UEFA competition without supporters in the stadium.

Gareth Southgate's team kick-off their UEFA Nations League campaign with a home match against Spain on Saturday 8 September with the first away match of the campaign against Croatia the following month.

The decision to play the match behind closed doors has been made by UEFA who advised us today. Further information will be provided on their website here as it is confirmed.


Read more at https://englandsupporters.thefa.com/b/news/archive/2018/01/30/uefa-nations-league-uefa-statement#xWKPp4Y1wduCjQMc.99

The Organiser said:

Port Vale Dave had booked Ryan (smiley face)

Gutter that is, we was literally pricing it up and looking to book next month.

God why do we always play the same teams. I’ve done Switzerland away twice in qualifiers in recent times.

Why not Hungary, Romania, Czech, Belgium etc etc to test ourselves against different teams and allow me to go to a more exciting Country

Newspapers here say the favourites for the location for the Spain v England and Croatia games are the Celta Vigo ground and the Real Betis stadium in Sevilla. Been to both and would definitely favour Betis for a trip, both for the ground and for the fantastic city.

cabbie8 said:

Anyone have any ideas where the Spain game will be played? Was going to book flights to Madrid and hope it is there or worse case get a train out to where we are playing

Meant to be arranged no later than 90 days before kick off.

CharltonMadrid said:

Newspapers here say the favourites for the location for the Spain v England and Croatia games are the Celta Vigo ground and the Real Betis stadium in Sevilla. Been to both and would definitely favour Betis for a trip, both for the ground and for the fantastic city.

I watched the 2008 Euro quarter final against Italy in a Betis bar in Seville. Fucking brilliant. Great city, mad about their football. One of the best experiences with football I've had, topped only by watching the final in the center of Madrid with a 103F fever that made me borderline delusional.

SDAddick said:

C_Jensens_Love_Child said:

Jodaius said:

ForeverAddickted said:

OUCH!!

Germany | France | Holland... One of those will get relegated!!

This is why it won't work for me. Particularly below the top tier, having one promotion and one relegation place in a league of 3 teams is going to result in too much movement and some pretty weird groups after a couple of iterations of the competition. This would be equivalent of having 8 promotion and 8 relegation places in League 1.

I suppose on the plus side it keeps it interesting for the fans. I can't help but wonder if it would have been more meaningful to have either entered the top and bottom teams of each group into a playoff to compete for 2 promotion and relegation places per division, or alternatively to do away with European qualifiers altogether to allow for a different format of say 8 larger divisions of 9 teams?

Disagree, it might even it up a bit more. There's some decent teams which will be winning the second pool from smaller countries and will also help them playing against top class team. Also I still can't see why Holland are listed as a top class team . They didn't even qualify for playoffs in there group and VVD apart they don't have top class players. There players are made up from players from Brighton, Palace and Bournmouth unlike years before where it players from Real, Barca, AC Milan (when they were a top team).

I think that's a little bit of a false comparison because the money in the Premier League means that smaller clubs now have the ability to sign internationals for major countries.

I don't disagree with the fact the Dutch don't particularly belong in that top tier. But this tournament is designed to make the FIFA rankings of whatever the use more reflective of teams' abilities. Basically it's designed to get rid of the meaningless friendlies that can influence how a team is ranked, which then impacts where they're drawn in qualifying and in tournaments. Or at least that's one of the goals as I understand it.

I'm quite excited for this. I still don't fully understand it, but I think it's going to be good fun and a little chaotic. And a bit of mayhem usually adds to the fun.

All the inflation means is all players are going up in prices from the top top players to the average players. Still doesn't change the fact that they are not playing for top teams for a reason, because they are not top players like teams from the past and that's reflected in them finishing 4th and 3rd in the last 2 attempts to qualify. They might have a new generation coming through and get back to being up there but with the current crop and them relying on players like an over the hill Van Persie or Ryan Babel then I don't think you can put them in the same category as Spain and Germany. Same applies to a much lesser extent to Italy. My opinion obviously.