UEFA Nations League?

I found this explanation in Wikipedia. Sounds like a lot of games to be played in a short amount of time! It basically is the equivalent to South America's nations cup.

The UEFA Nations League[1] is an international association football competition, to be contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament is due to commence in September 2018, after the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and the winner will be decided in June 2019. The competition will largely replace international friendly matches currently played on the FIFA International Match Calendar.

Adoption[edit]
In October 2013, Norwegian Football Association President Yngve Hallén confirmed that talks had been held to create a third full national-team international tournament for UEFA members but warned that it was only at the design stage.[3]

The concept of the UEFA Nations League would see all 55 of UEFA's members associations' national teams divided into a series of groups based upon a ranking formulated using their recent results, where they would be promoted and relegated to other groups according to their results within the group.[4] The proposed tournament would take place on dates on the International match calendar that are currently allocated for international friendlies and would not affect the FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship.[5]

In March 2014, UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino stated that one of the benefits of the proposal would be to help less glamorous national associations arrange games.[5] The Football Association's chairman Greg Dyke said that the proposal is "very attractive", as England would be expected to play against top-ranking national teams.[5] Royal Belgian Football Association's general secretary Steve Martens said that lower-ranked nations would still benefit financially from the competition, as the television contract with UEFA would be centralised.[6]

The UEFA Nations League was unanimously adopted by the 54 UEFA member associations (Kosovo was not a member at this time) at the XXXVIII Ordinary UEFA Congress in Astana on 27 March 2014.[1]

Format[edit]
According to the approved format (prior to Kosovo becoming UEFA member),[1][7][8] the 55 UEFA national teams will be divided into four divisions (called "Leagues"):[9][10] 12 teams in League A, 12 teams in League B, 15 teams in League C, and 16 teams in League D. In the top division League A, teams will compete to become the UEFA Nations League champions. Teams will also compete for promotion and relegation to a higher or lower division. The UEFA Nations League will also be linked with UEFA Euro qualifying, providing teams another chance to qualify for the UEFA Euro finals tournament.[9][10][11]

The format was criticized for allegedly allowing teams not good enough to qualify through the regular qualifiers to make it to the EURO finals.[12] Also, teams already eliminated from the World Cup qualifiers would benefit from losing games on purpose, in order to drop to a lower league and improve their chances of qualifying through the Nations League playoffs.[13]

Seasons[edit]
Each season of the UEFA Nations League will be played from September to November of an even-numbered year (pool stage), and June of the following odd-numbered year (final four competition of League A), meaning a UEFA Nations League champion will be crowned every two years.[9][10][11]

They say games (group play) are just in Sept., Oct, and Nov and then June (finals) in place of intl friendlies and it's over a two year period. Means teams like Spain, France, Germany play meaningful games (& additional television revenue) with less travel in getting ready for Euros or WC. In addition the lessor countries get winnable opponents plus more TV revenue than they do now.

Sounds in principle, ok, but I still think it's a lot of games compacted into a short amount of time. I'd want to see an overall schedule (together with normal club time slots) before making any reasonable judgement.

But some of those friendlies or Intl breaks are qualifying for either Euro or WC. In the case of A group, you have four groups of three, which means 4 games for each nation. Are you saying there normally are 4 friendlies in the three months (Sep, Oct & Nov). and what about the qualifying games, are they on at same time?

But Rincon, there are qualifying games, every year, next Sept the games for qualifying for Euro 2019 begin!

Ok, I get it now (finally!). The real losers are the South American nations as they won't have Europe teams to play, except in real competitions. No wonder they invited France, Spain, Germany to their tournament!

This actually helps European nations in increased TV revenues, better competition in so called friendlies and less travel (benefits players, pocket book, and club teams).

The more I learn about this, the more I like it.