Women's Football UEFA European Nations League 2023 - 2024 Road to Paris 2024

[Rafa Maciel 1,262]

1 hour ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Have you any idea how much it grates on Scotland to have to adopt the GBR moniker when going to the Olympics for Curling?

From what I've seen, the curlers are generally pretty happy to compete as Team GB at Olympics - it is the only time when they get any media coverage  It doesn't hurt them that for a while, they were the only realistic chance of a winter Olympic medal so the BBC would be fawning over them.

 

A more apt comparison is probably the reaction to the Scottish, Welsh and English rugby 7s teams being forced to merge to compete as Great Britain this year. I know a lot of people think that has essentially killed off the game in the home nations. 

[Josh 5,767]

I still think that it’s ridiculous that only two European teams (+ France) will qualify for Paris.
 

If it were me, here’s how the qualification would’ve worked. 

Host Nation (France)

Three European teams

One African team

Two North American teams

Two Asian teams

One Oceania team

One South American team

Olympic Playoff between South America 2 and Europe 4

[mpjmcevoy 202]

45 minutes ago, Rafa Maciel said:

From what I've seen, the curlers are generally pretty happy to compete as Team GB at Olympics - it is the only time when they get any media coverage  It doesn't hurt them that for a while, they were the only realistic chance of a winter Olympic medal so the BBC would be fawning over them.

 

A more apt comparison is probably the reaction to the Scottish, Welsh and English rugby 7s teams being forced to merge to compete as Great Britain this year. I know a lot of people think that has essentially killed off the game in the home nations. 

I agree the curlers are happy. For historical reasons they tend to be drawn from rural, generally unionist communities. Its more the casual fans that grumble!

 

Rugby is a good point - indeed, its a shambles. Could also note that combining for basketball has not been successful, either.

[mpjmcevoy 202]

42 minutes ago, Josh said:

I still think that it’s ridiculous that only two European teams (+ France) will qualify for Paris.
 

If it were me, here’s how the qualification would’ve worked. 

Host Nation (France)

Three European teams

One African team

Two North American teams

Two Asian teams

One Oceania team

One South American team

Olympic Playoff between South America 2 and Europe 4

Host

Americas 3

Asia-Pacific 2

Europe 3

Africa 2

 

Final qualifier knockout tournament over 9 days 

 

NAmerica 2

SAmerica 1

Europe 2

Asia 2

Pacific 1

Africa 2

 

Note N and S America, Asia and Oceania all guaranteed specific final qualifier berths, not like in original Q.

 

2nd team from any region with 2 teams (NAm 2, EU 2, As 2, Africa 2) play in playin round. 2 winners join remaining 6 (NAm 1, SAm 1, Africa 1, Asia 1, Pacific 1 and Europe 1) in QF, winner Q

[Nickyc707 305]

6 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I agree the curlers are happy. For historical reasons they tend to be drawn from rural, generally unionist communities. Its more the casual fans that grumble!

 

Rugby is a good point - indeed, its a shambles. Could also note that combining for basketball has not been successful, either.

Scotland and England basketballl didn't seem to have any problem uniting as GB for the Olympics. After all English and Scottish clubs compete together in the same league. The country with the issues this time is Wales.

 

The issue only really arises in some team sports and has more than 150 years of sporting competition behind it with the first recognised international matches in both sports being between England and Scotland - rugby union (1871), football (1872).

 

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Nickyc707

[Nickyc707 305]

8 hours ago, AsensioWillemsen said:

I don’t see Belgium topping. Surely England is going to win their match. Scottish fans would be disgusted when they would give away a goalfest though, cannot see that happening so easily.

 

even though this situation shouldn’t have happened.

You may be right but Belgium has already beaten the Netherlands in the reverse fixture. Don't write off Scotland. They've already held Belgium to two draws, the Netherlands went to Scotland and only managed a single goal while they held England to 2-1 in their first meeting in Sunderland. I really do think any of the three contenders could still qualify although the Netherlands are clear favourites. 

 

As I and others have already mentioned any Scottish (or English) team that threw a match between the two in any sport would go down in infamy - think Chicago White (Black) Sox, 1919 but much much worse.

[heywoodu 13,562]

23 minutes ago, Nickyc707 said:

The issue only really arises in some team sports

And is sadly never going to be fixed. Only way to do that is having Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England have their own NOC and from now on compete as four separate nations in every sport and event, including the Olympics (which would be the best solution, but is definitely not going to happen in our lifetimes), or to have Great Britain be the representative entity for them in every single sport outside of the Olympics as well, which obviously isn't going to happen neither.

 

So this kind of nonsense as we see right now - where even if players won't do it, the mere existence of "to have a chance at the Olympics, we need to lose by as much as possible" is obviously a very questionable situation - will just keep going on  

[Nickyc707 305]

4 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

And is sadly never going to be fixed. Only way to do that is having Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England have their own NOC and from now on compete as four separate nations in every sport and event, including the Olympics (which would be the best solution, but is definitely not going to happen in our lifetimes), or to have Great Britain be the representative entity for them in every single sport outside of the Olympics as well, which obviously isn't going to happen neither.

 

So this kind of nonsense as we see right now - where even if players won't do it, the mere existence of "to have a chance at the Olympics, we need to lose by as much as possible" is obviously a very questionable situation - will just keep going on  

It doesn't have to go on. There is a simple solution, albeit it is apparently beyond the competence of UEFA, and that is to ensure that England, Scotland and Wales don't compete together in the same qualifying group. It isn't rocket science as football always manipulates its draws for the major competitions to ensure countries aren't draw together, e.g. World Cup finals.

[heywoodu 13,562]

30 minutes ago, Nickyc707 said:

It doesn't have to go on. There is a simple solution, albeit it is apparently beyond the competence of UEFA, and that is to ensure that England, Scotland and Wales don't compete together in the same qualifying group. It isn't rocket science as football always manipulates its draws for the major competitions to ensure countries aren't draw together, e.g. World Cup finals.

Yeah, since an actual solution to the whole situation is just not going to happen (the two options I mentioned), this is the way that would at least reduce it somewhat.

[EselTheDonkey 698]

10 hours ago, Benolympique said:

therefore   and  qualified in the semi-final

 is not yet qualified. They still need to win their game against .