UEFA president confident of Nations League boost

ZURICH: European soccer’s new Nations League competition will give national team football a boost when it gets under way next month, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said on Thursday.
Ceferin said that friendly internationals failed to provide meaningful matches and that a new balance was needed between club and national team football. The Nations League, to be held every two years, features all 55 of Europe’s national teams divided into four divisions — Leagues A to D — that are themselves split into four groups, to be played between September and November. There is promotion and relegation between each league while the top division will finish with a four-team mini-tournament, to be held in June next year, to decide the Nations League champion. Initially greeted with scepticism because of its seemingly complex format, the new competition was given a warmer reception by coaches when the draw was made in January.
“The World Cup showed that there is a huge appetite for national team football,” said Ceferin in a UEFA statement. (Reuters)