Malta FA president Norman Darmanin Demajo has hailed UEFA’s new Nations League competition to replace international friendlies from 2018 as an important step towards safeguarding the “sporting integrity of national team football”.
UEFA yesterday confirmed the new competition at its Congress and the 54 European member countries will be split into four divisions, with Malta set to be in the lower group along with the likes of Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands and Andorra.
“We are very pleased that the 54 members of UEFA have unanimously agreed and accepted a resolution regarding the National A Team competitions starting from 2018,” Darmanin Demajo said.
“Although the exact details and mechanics still have to be communicated, we feel that another step forward has been made towards protecting the sporting integrity of national team football, especially with regards to international friendly matches which were not providing the necessary competitive environment that is a basic requirement in creating interest.
“The new concept proposes a ‘Nations League’ where, in our case, Malta would play its ‘friendly’ matches in an organised championship against opponents of similar strength with the opportunity of being promoted to a higher division and moving up the ranking ladder.”
The successful sides in the top division of the Nations League will be able to earn places at the Euro 2020 finals.
Although the exact format has yet to be finalised, four berths for the 2020 European Championship will be made available from the new competition for teams that may have not advanced through the usual qualifying route.
The Nations League will largely replace friendly internationals, which have become increasingly unpopular for many middle and lower-ranked teams around the continent.
One feature of the new competition will be a promotion and relegation element with a four-team finals being held in odd years in one selected country.
Darmanin Demajo is hopeful that the Nations League will also generate more income from TV rights.
“It is envisaged that these Nations League fixtures will fall within the UEFA centralised TV rights concept, and this will probably generate more TV rights income with consequent larger financial benefits for member associations,” the Malta FA president said.
“All in all it seems that this concept is one that will benefit all the associations and the sporting public in general.”
Vassallo’s role
For his part, MFA CEO Bjorn Vassallo also gave his thumbs-up to the Nations League, having played an active role in the discussions that eventually led to the creation of this new competition.
“Personally, I agreed with the format of the Nations League as fans in countries like ours prefer competitive football,” he said.
“There is also the added allure of seeing our national side compete with teams of the same level, all of whom will have the opportunity to progress to a higher division.
“In other sporting disciplines, this concept already exists.”
Vassallo, who was part of the MFA delegation at the UEFA Congress in Astana along with Darmanin Demajo and vice-president Chris Bonett, said the new competition will have no impact on the traditional qualifying format for the Euros and World Cup.
“At the beginning, there was some resistance from middle and lower-ranked countries who presumed that the principle of an open competition was going to be lost,” Vassallo explained.
“They argued that it made more sense for small nations to safeguard their chances of drawing a big team in the qualification round for the Euros or World Cup.
“But, after further discussions and, with the format adjusted a number of times, everyone agreed that it made sense to introduce a competition at this level.
“As a member of UEFA’s National Teams Competitions Committee, which gave birth to the idea of revising the competitions, I was all out in favour of the introduction of the Nations League and the MFA always supported this initiative to the full.
“We believe so much in this competition that we were also catalysts in promoting this concept among other national associations.”
The Malta FA CEO also paid tribute to Michel Platini after the UEFA president reiterated his support for the smaller associations and grassroots football.
“Platini always says that football is not for the elite.
“He underlined the importance of grassroots football by announcing an increased budget for the Hat-Trick programme for the next cycle,” Vassallo said.
“This is good news for the Malta FA as all the money derived from this scheme is used to upgrade our football facilities.
“Besides this, the 54 member associations unanimously agreed to adopt a united approach in implementing a resolution called ‘European football united for the integrity of the game’.”
Nations League – a guide
• There will be four divisions, each containing 12-14 teams based on UEFA’s coefficients. The top European sides will be in Division A.
• Each division will have four mini-leagues with teams playing three or four other teams on a home-and-away basis between September and November 2018.
• The winners of each mini-league go into the division’s semi-finals and then final at a neutral venue in June 2019.
• Twenty of the 24 qualification places for Euro 2020 will be decided via the usual qualifying groups in matches played from 2019.
• The top four teams in each Nations League division will play off for the four remaining Euro 2020 qualification places in March 2020, with one team from each division qualifying for the European Championship. If a team have already qualified, the play-off place goes to the country finishing immediately below them in that division.
• Two of Europe’s 13 qualifying places for the 2022 World Cup may also be decided via the top two divisions of the Nations League.
• TV income is likely to be organised in a similar way to the Champions League, with each country being awarded half the value of its Nations League TV rights deal, and the rest shared out across the 54 nations via participation money and match bonuses.