Euro 2020 Qualifying Playoffs

[Stan]

Wembley games increased as Brussels can't host games due to no guarantees of a new stadium being built on time.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42270759

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Belgium's capital city has been ruled out as a planned new stadium is still to be built and Uefa have not received the necessary guarantees.

Wembley was already scheduled to hold the semi-finals and final but will now also host three group games and a last 16 tie.

Cardiff and Stockholm had also been in contention to host the extra games.

England's national stadium is one of 12 venues across Europe hosting Euro 2020 games.

Speaking in Nyon, Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said the decision of Uefa's executive committee had been unanimous.

The Football Association of Wales (FAW) said they were "extremely disappointed" that their bid to host four matches at Cardiff's Principality Stadium had been unsuccessful.

"The concept of taking Uefa Euro 2020 to 13 different countries was devised to allow smaller countries, like Wales, to have a unique opportunity of being involved in staging a major tournament," the FAW said in a statement.

"Wales has never staged a Euro or World Cup final and this was its one and only chance of doing so."

The 2020 tournament, which runs from 12 June until 12 July that year, is the first European Championship to be played under a new format with group games spread across several countries.

The opening match will be played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Glasgow's Hampden Park and Dublin's Aviva Stadium will host last-16 matches and three group games.

The quarter-finals and three group matches will be held in Munich (Germany), Baku (Azerbaijan), Rome (Italy) and St Petersburg (Russia).

The other host cities that will hold three group games and a last 16 game are Copenhagen (Denmark), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary) and now London.

Euro 2020 host city pairings

Each qualified host country will play a minimum of two games at home.

Group A: Rome & Baku

Group B: Saint Petersburg & Copenhagen

Group C: Amsterdam & Bucharest

Group D: London & Glasgow

Group E: Bilbao & Dublin

Group F: Munich & Budapest

 

 

[Smiley Culture]

Big fan of the tournament being in numerous countries, makes for a hell of a European holiday in 2020 with some great cities on the list.

[Danny]

Fucking expensive that.

[ScoRoss]

 

[ScoRoss]

Germany slip into Pot 2.

Can just imagine Scotland will get Spain and Germany in a group.

[Stan]

If I'm right in thinking, the 4 nations league finalists (England, Switzerland, Portugal, Netherlands) will automatically be placed in to the groups with only 5 teams in. 

[ScoRoss]

Just now, Stan said:

If I'm right in thinking, the 4 nations league finalists (England, Switzerland, Portugal, Netherlands) will automatically be placed in to the groups with only 5 teams in. 

Yes. Everyone else will be playing qualifiers in June whilst they are at the 'Finals'.

[Dave]

I am so confused.

[Dave]

Wouldn't a 6 pot team be easier to qualify from anyway? What kind of reward is that?

[ScoRoss]

 

[ScoRoss]

3 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Wouldn't a 6 pot team be easier to qualify from anyway? What kind of reward is that?

Not particularly, unless you expect other teams in your group to drop points against the worst sides in qualifying. 

[ScoRoss]

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Uefa has tried to increase the likelihood that countries hosting Euro 2020 games also qualify for the tournament - so no more than two teams with games can be in the same group. Those teams are England, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Azerbaijan, Denmark, Hungary, Romania and Russia. Because the draw works from the top seeds downwards, it means that if, for example, England were drawn with Germany, Denmark or Russia, they could not then be in a group with the Republic of Ireland or Scotland.

Stupid contrived bullshit.

[Smiley Culture]

Ah, that’s a shame the draw is getting more and more convoluted and certain teams can’t play each other. 

I really want England to draw Germany. Unpopular as that might be, the Nations League has been a breath of fresh air over the past few months and has provided competitive games against quality opponents instead of the monotony and general ease of which we find qualifying campaigns. The chance to watch a competitive game with Germany at Wembley would be great to attend. 

Would like any of the following sides from those provisional pots:

2nd seeds - Germany, Denmark, Sweden. 

3rd seeds - Norway, Serbia, Scotland. 

4th seeds - Hungary, Greece, Montenegro. 

5th seeds - Unsurprisingly a bit meh in this category so Kosovo, Faroe Islands or Gibraltar as I know we’ve definitely not played two of those three. 

[Guest]

Due to the way the nations league works there is a potential situation of a team benefiting from loosing.

The four teams that win each group in each league go into a play of to qualify for the Euro's. If a team has already qualified their play of place goes to the best second placed team.

Now say Serbia who were in league C qualify through the normal qualifying route their play of place goes to Bulgaria who were the best second placed team.

Now this is where a team can benefit from loosing. Say Bulgaria mathematically can't quality through their qualifying group. Now say they are playing Serbia who if they beat Bulgaria qualify for the Euros. At the expense of say Sweden who were in league B . If Bulgaria deliberately loose to Serbia and they qualify Bulgaria will get their qualifying play of place as they won't need it.

So there is another potential situation where a team can benefit from loosing

Thoughts?

[CaaC (John)+]

I am not a professional footballer but if I was and a coach/manager said to me "We can't win this game so make sure we lose..." I would either walk out of the club or tell him to fuck off, I will go out to win".    

[Smiley Culture]

Footballer’s aren’t that smart. 

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, CaaC - John said:

I am not a professional footballer but if I was and a coach/manager said to me "We can't win this game so make sure we lose..." I would either walk out of the club or tell him to fuck off, I will go out to win".    

Yeah but think about it if a team wins they can't qualify for a tournament if they loose they can it could happen. Athletes have tried to loose before it happened in the Olympic badminton competition once.

[ScoRoss]

Qualifying draw at 12 noon.

[Marc]

Anyone ever been to an England away game? i costs £75 to join the england supporters club 

[Smiley Culture]

14 hours ago, Marc said:

Anyone ever been to an England away game? i costs £75 to join the england supporters club 

I haven’t but that’s £75 for a two-year period and gets you first pick of England Home tickets (at a slightly lower rate than general sale). You have to build up the number of “caps” you get before you can apply for an away ticket. I think each home game attended is two caps (I’m not sure how many an away game is). 

I’m not sure how Euro 2020 will work with these either as usually it’s in one country that isn’t England and thus there’s less demand then I imagine there will be for games scheduled at Wembley in 2020. 

[Marc]

On 03/12/2018 at 11:11, Smiley Culture said:

I haven’t but that’s £75 for a two-year period and gets you first pick of England Home tickets (at a slightly lower rate than general sale). You have to build up the number of “caps” you get before you can apply for an away ticket. I think each home game attended is two caps (I’m not sure how many an away game is). 

I’m not sure how Euro 2020 will work with these either as usually it’s in one country that isn’t England and thus there’s less demand then I imagine there will be for games scheduled at Wembley in 2020. 

It’s annoying for someone like me who wants to go to just an odd England away game, but fair as it rewards the loyal fans.

Only thing I would say is it’s alot harder for someone from the North of England to attend home games and in turn get enough points for an away ticket. 

Easy with hindsight but Russia was the one to go to, demand was far less than usual due to the expected trouble. I expected trouble.

[Smiley Culture]

1 hour ago, Marc said:

It’s annoying for someone like me who wants to go to just an odd England away game, but fair as it rewards the loyal fans.

Only thing I would say is it’s alot harder for someone from the North of England to attend home games and in turn get enough points for an away ticket. 

Easy with hindsight but Russia was the one to go to, demand was far less than usual due to the expected trouble. I expected trouble.

I’m know a lad that attends England home games who gets his tickets from a bloke up north who only wants to do away games. He gets the caps and the lad I know gets England Home tickets for less than general sale. 

I’m sure there are other ways round it but I see why they do it. 

[Danny]

Tbh I'd bet a large amount of England supporters at Wembley come from outside of London

[Stan]

I'm prepared to be severely underwhelmed

 

[Smiley Culture]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

I'm prepared to be severely underwhelmed

 

Either it’s just like an unveiling of the tournament happening next year and just not really that newsworthy or it’ll be something mental from UEFA like goals scored in the first and last five minutes count as two, teams get three points for a win plus a “bonus point” for scoring three or more or something equally as stupid and unwarranted.