UEFA's 54 member countries have voted to create a Nations League competition to start in September 2018. The competition will replace most continental international friendlies and feed into qualifying playoffs for the 2020 European Championship. It could later be incorporated into European qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. ''This is a very important decision for the future of football at the level of national teams,'' UEFA President Michel Platini said Thursday after the vote at European football's annual congress. Platini had pledged to raise the status and commercial value of international football. It has struggled against competition from popular and lucrative European domestic leagues and UEFA's own Champions League. ''The friendlies really don't interest anybody, neither the audience at large, neither the journalists nor the players,'' Platini said later at a news conference. The Nations League tournament format is yet to be finalized, although it foresees 54 teams ranked in four divisions playing September-November 2018. The 12 highest-ranked teams would play in four three-team groups in Division A. Those group winners would advance to a 'final four' tournament in June 2019. Teams could be promoted or relegated through the divisions. All 54 teams would still play in traditional Euro 2020 qualifying groups, which would be played March-November 2019. The Euro 2020 playoffs would then be scheduled in March 2020. That lineup would be decided by Nations League results of teams which did not qualify directly in the top-two qualifying group positions. Platini confirmed that each of the four divisions, including the lowest-ranked, should send one team to Euro 2020. That would offer teams such as the Faeroe Islands, Gibraltar or San Marino a chance to debut at a major event. Euro 2020 is being played across Europe in 13 different host cities which will be picked in September. UEFA will likely try to include the subsequent Nations League in the European qualifying program for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. FIFA is consulting over redrawing football's international calendar to play that tournament in November-December 2022 to avoid the desert heat of Qatar's summer. ''We have to see when the World Cup will take place and we can discuss this further,'' UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino said. In voting Thursday, members also agreed to give UEFA central control of marketing rights to ''all national team matches also for the period 2018-2022.'' Europe's top clubs, who often hold out their best players from friendlies, will have concerns about UEFA increasing national teams' competitive fixture lists. Infantino countered that the Nations League would limit travel as national teams would have fewer chances to travel globally for friendlies. ''It is rather good news they will have their players back earlier and not exhausted from intercontinental trips,'' he told a news conference. Platini said he did not know what the clubs' reaction would be, stressing ''this is a unanimous decision taken by the 54 associations.'' (For moresports news and updates,followAhramOnlineSportson Twitter [email protected]_Sportsand on Facebook atAhramOnlineSports.) http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/97668.aspx
