In a huge announcement made by UEFA vice-president Zbigniew Boniek, the European Nations League as we know it will change drastically come 2024. In an interview with Polish media Boniek stated that the current format would change in 2024 with the inclusion of the 10 CONMEBOL nations.
“This is the last UEFA Nations League in this format… We had a meeting with CONMEBOL, the confederation of South American countries. From 2024, teams from this continent will join the competition” stated Boniek.
It is not the first-time nations from other federations have participated in regional tournaments, the Concacaf Gold Cup is known for having outside members compete and the Copa America at one time had consistent participation from Concacaf teams as well.
CONMEBOL countries to participate in UEFA Nations League
Lionel Messi (Kelvin Loyola)
The new competition would have the six best-ranked South American countries in League A, the remaining four would play in League B. Leagues A and B would be expanded from 16 teams to 22 and 20 teams respectively. All the matches would be played in Europe as per Boniek.
From a fan’s perspective the addition of South American teams could make for some good eye candy, in 2023 MLS and Liga MX will combine their two domestic leagues and play a World Cup style competition called The Leagues Cup, in a similar route.
How an announcement like this will affect the long-term traditional style of regional and World Cup competitions is still up in the air. Concacaf and CONMEBOL have combined their federations before to play the Copa America Centenario in 2016, this would be the first massive merger of the Soccer world’s two most traditional confederations Europe and South America. The two confederations have already announced the match called the ‘Finalissima’, which will pit the winners of the Euro 2020 and the 2021 Copa América, Italy and Argentina, against each other in a one-off game in London in June 2022.
The news of the merger inthe Nations League is being seen as a direct counter to FIFA’s plans of hosting a World Cup every two years. As the soccer world continues to look at ways to increase their revenue away from the watchful eye of FIFA this story is only just beginning.
UPDATE:Reuters has reported that UEFA has stated that the merger is still not finalized: “UEFA is working on a number of projects with CONMEBOL, including a joint Nations League but nothing is finalized, and no decisions have yet been made,”
