That is why we should care about the League of Nations.

Of: Petra Thorén

Published: Oct 11, 2020 at 1:27 p.m.
Updated: October 11, 2020 at 2:12 p.m.

ZAGREB. Tonight, Sweden plays to stay in the Nations League division A.

There are sporting and economic reasons for the goal, although it can cost ranking points and erode players’ self-confidence.

– If they defeat us, it hurts and we have to try to fix it, says Sebastian Larsson before the meeting with Croatia.

The League of Nations was launched two years ago and its structure has been described as more difficult to understand than the periodic table.

UEFA’s ambition is to replace all previous friendly matches with competitive matches in which teams with comparable rankings meet each other and before the end of the European Championship play-offs meant an additional opportunity to qualify for the championship. The hope is that UEFA’s 55 member countries will develop their standard and the structure has been slightly modified since the first edition.

In the pot for Division A teams, there is still a tiebreaker.

The Nations League consists of four divisions: A, B, C and D. With the group win in division B in the fall of 2018, Sweden made the move to the elegant hall. The start against France and Portugal, however, meant two defeats and tonight Sweden will face Croatia, who also started with two defeats.

– Croatia’s matches will be a little more key depending on the results of the first round, says the captain of the national team, Janne Andersson.

The last team in the group leaves Division A. The goal of the national team is to stay there, although it may cost qualification points before the next World Cup qualifiers and in terms of self-confidence.

If we are going to explain at a simple level why the national team cares and why you, as a fan of the national team, should participate in the League of Nations.

Sports:
The national team sees advantages in playing competitive matches against the highest ranked teams in Europe. If the team remains in division A, it means a new group game in the next edition of the competition. The entire group game will be decided this fall.

– We had France and Portugal at the end. Now we have Russia and Croatia and it is very useful for us. The more often you are at the top level, the better and better you will handle it, says Janne Andersson, noting:

– Now there were two defeats and we realize that it is even more difficult to win the group. We want to be in this group because we believe that it is developing to play in this division and the more we do it, the more important it is for the future.

BUT there may be a negative sports effect. Losing weight consumes players:

– I cannot say that I come to this collection with little confidence in myself, what I can answer as a footballer is that they win us two games in a row because of the little pain. It doesn’t matter that it was against the world champion and the European champion, they hit us and it hurts and we have to try to fix it and get back on the right track, says Sebastian Larsson.

Qualifier for the World Cup:

There is another sporting effect. The results affect the classification in the draw for the next World Cup qualifiers, which begin in March. Sweden lost a place in the latest FIFA rankings since September 17, from 17 to 18. Additional losses against strong opponents may mean that Sweden loses more positions as long as the team (Poland, Wales) behind performs well.

– Of course we can lose the qualifying points as little as possible, I don’t know all the systems, because we are in division A and we find these good teams, says Janne Andersson.

For the World Cup in Qatar, Europe has 13 places and the novelty is that the qualifiers are based on ten groups. After the Nations League, the ten qualifying groups will be drawn for the World Cup based on a classification based on the world ranking in November 2020.

The group stages (ten) go directly to the WC. However, the format of the play-off game has grown. The two of the qualifiers will go to the World Cup playoffs in March 2022. At the same time, join the two highest ranked Nations League group winners who did not directly qualify as group winners or made the playoffs as second in the World Cup qualifiers. Ranking in the Nations League is dependent on points, goal difference, goals scored, away goals, disciplinary points and more. Sweden currently ranks 12th.

The World Cup draw is expected to take place in late 2020.

Fans:

For blue and yellow fans, matches in the highest division mean that you can see your favorites against world stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Luca Modric. Reasonably, it should be more interesting than a friendly match against lesser known teams.

The money:

Promotion to Division A gave Swedish football around SEK 24 million. Since then, the entire fall has been a severe financial setback because the crown pandemic has not allowed games to be played with supporters in place.

The public matches against France and Portugal resulted in a loss of ticket revenue of SEK 20 million for the Swedish Football Association. At the end of this fall, Croatia awaits the Friends Arena. Under normal circumstances, it had been the audience parties that made the cash register ring.

But if Sweden remains in Division A, that opportunity will return and then hopefully the pandemic will have subsided and fans will be able to support their team again at Friends Arena.

According to Uefa.com, television money is centralized for all Nations League teams.

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Published: Oct 11, 2020 at 1:27 p.m.

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