Friday, November 18, 2016

UEFA Nations League update (18 November 2016)

The coefficient used for the first edition draw will be made up of:

2014 World Cup (qualifiers and final tournament) - 20% of total weighting
EURO 2016 (qualifiers and final tournament) - 40% of total weighting
2018 World Cup (qualifiers) - 40% of total weighting.
See the previous update (14 October 2016).

Best movers:

3 - Hungary, Denmark, Cyprus, Armenia

Worst movers:

-5 - Albania
-3 - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden
-2 - Russia, Romania

Turkey replace Albania in League B.
Cyprus replace Estonia in League C.

 1  1 Germany                33086
 2  3 Belgium                31382
 3  2 France                 31268
 4  4 Portugal               31155
 5  6 Spain                  29730
 6  7 England                29651
 7  5 Russia                 29258
 8  8 Italy                  29106
 9  9 Switzerland            28786
10 10 Croatia                27099
11 11 Poland                 26802
12 12 Iceland                24995
13 15 Netherlands            24965
14 13 Austria                24958
15 14 Wales                  24809
16 17 Ukraine                24686
17 19 Republic of Ireland    24609
18 21 Hungary                24186
19 16 Bosnia and Herzegovina 24040
20 22 Slovakia               23654
21 18 Sweden                 23406
22 20 Romania                22857
23 24 Czech Republic         22847
24 25 Turkey                 22518
25 26 Slovenia               22287
26 27 Northern Ireland       22227
27 29 Israel                 21752
28 23 Albania                21650
29 32 Denmark                21251
29 28 Greece                 21251
31 30 Montenegro             20251
32 31 Norway                 20148
33 33 Scotland               19921
34 34 Serbia                 19526
35 35 Bulgaria               19311
36 36 Lithuania              17921
37 37 Finland                17321
38 41 Cyprus                 16771
39 38 Azerbaijan             16701
40 39 Estonia                16161
41 40 Belarus                15888
42 42 Georgia                15403
43 46 Armenia                14445
44 43 Latvia                 14321
45 44 Faroe Islands          13610
46 45 Kazakhstan             13271
47 49 Moldova                12930
48 47 FYR Macedonia          12531
49 48 Luxembourg             12511
50 50 Liechtenstein          11410
51 51 Malta                  10730
52 52 Kosovo                 10450
53 53 San Marino              8850
54 54 Andorra                 8820
55 55 Gibraltar               8275

League A

Pot 1: Germany, Belgium, France, Portugal
Pot 2: Spain, England, Russia, Italy
Pot 3: Switzerland, Croatia, Poland, Iceland
League B

Pot 1: Netherlands, Austria, Wales, Ukraine
Pot 2: Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia
Pot 3: Sweden, Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey

League C

Pot 1: Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Israel, Albania
Pot 2: Denmark, Greece, Montenegro, Norway
Pot 3: Scotland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Lithuania
Pot 4: Finland, Cyprus, Azerbaijan
League D

Pot 1: Estonia, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia
Pot 2: Latvia, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Moldova
Pot 3: FYR Macedonia, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malta
Pot 4: Kosovo, San Marino, Andorra, Gibraltar

About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

11 comments:

  1. It's interesting that teams like Scotland, Serbia, or Bulgaria have a much tougher road to Euro 2020 than Estonia, Georgia, or Armenia.

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  2. I thought the same way 3 or 4 years ago when I had read the rules of Nations League for the first time and now I see that it comes to reality :( Relegation to lower league may be profitable for some teams to make their path to the big tournament easier.

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  3. Oddly if you are eliminated with games to play in the World Cup qualifying then there is an incentive to lose those final matches, particularly for teams at bottom of league C!

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  4. There is one interesting thing - how UEFA will deal with League C seeding?

    There are two options, both have a big advantage and a big disadvantage:

    OPTION 1 (the way you presented above):
    Pot 1: C1, C2, C3, C4
    Pot 2: C5, C6, C7, C8
    Pot 3: C9, C10, C11, C12
    Pot 4: C13, C14, C15

    OPTION 2:
    Pot 1: C1, C2, C3, C4
    Pot 2: C5, C6, C7, C8
    Pot 3: C9, C10, C11
    Pot 4: C12, C13, C14, C15

    Taking into consideration that 4 teams will be relegated, each from one group, option 1 is not good, as there will be possible that C9 team go into 3-team-group and be relegated (as the weakest in their group); and C12 go into 4-team-group and be NOT relegated (as there would be weaker teams in its group: C13, C14 or C15).
    In this case Option 2 is better way to seed, because all 4 weakest teams go to different groups and theoretically will be relegated.

    But there is another important thing - how global ranking of League C will be made? This will be extremely important, because it is almost clear that not only group winners will play for the place in Euro 2020, but lower places too (some group winners may qualify via traditional qualifying, and some qualifying spots will drop from Leagues A and B to League C). So, League C teams will have played different number of matches (4 or 6). There are two ways to make a global ranking (i.e. compare second-placed team of three-team group with second-placed team of four-team group):
    - count and average points per game (still not good enough because a team from a four-team group will have played with a weaker opponent and a team from a three-team group - not)
    - count only record against 1 and 3 placed teams, and in this case Option 1 is better, because runners-up records would be comparable (opponents will be of the same strength).

    There ideal way to solve this is to increase number of teams for League C to 16 and thus get rid of a three-team group. League D then would have 15 teams, but it is acceptable, as there will be no relegations from League D and possibly all 4 League D group winners will play for the last spot of Euro 2020, so the need of making global ranking will be less important.

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    Replies
    1. I expect that League C will have 16 teams, not 15. What I don't understand is why League A has 12 instead of 16. Having more teams, would mean more games involving Germany, Italy, France, Spain, England - in other words, the teams that bring more money to the UEFA pot. It would also mean that those team would have a smaller chance to be relegated keeping League A rich in interest, attendances, TV rights, advertising, etc., with teams in League B pushing hard to be promoted.

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    2. Also, does anyone know if the second edition of the Nations League would take place in 2020-21 or 2022-23?

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    3. In one of the earliest introductionary texts about the Nations League UEFA has said:
      In every even year there are FIFA World Cup or UEFA EURO winners; now in every odd year there will be a UEFA Nations League champion.
      So that would mean 2020-2021 for the second edition..

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    4. Thanks. That means that there would be no play-offs in the next edition (Georgia vs Armenia for a spot in the World Cup? I hope not) - just a final four with promotions and relegations.

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  5. Just posted this link onto the Welsh Football Fans Facebook page, hope this is acceptable, and thank you once again for all your hard work

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  6. UEFA has published an interim UEFA Country rankings for Nations League after Nov 14 matches.
    http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/General/02/43/76/92/2437692_DOWNLOAD.pdf
    There are big differences in the nations order comparing the list here.
    See the article
    http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/news/newsid=2437695.html#how+uefa+nations+league+could+line

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    Replies
    1. Edgar's numbers incorporate the not yet played qualifying matches for 10000 points each to obtain a more stable prediction of the resulting ranking after the qualifying is finished.
      The UEFA list is the situation at this moment.

      Edgar, maybe you should mention this fact in each NT ranking post. This question keeps coming back again and again ...

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