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Italy will Host the U19 European Championship in 2020!

deluded pom?

Coach
Messages
10,897
https://www.ffr13.fr/actualite-a-la-une/litalie-accueillera-le-championnat-deurope-u19-en-2020/
Eight nations will again compete in the European Under-19 Championship in 2020, with Italy hosting the event for the first time. The coastal town of north-east, Lignano Sabbiadoro, will be the base of the biennial to be held from 3 to 13 September 2020.

The defending champions (France), who won the last tournament in Serbia, are among the favorites with England, finalist of a hotly contested final in 2018. The seven nations ranked among the best in the last tournament - including also Wales and Scotland, Serbia, Ireland and Italy - will automatically qualify for the 2020 tournament, if they wish to participate.

Ukraine, who finished eighth, will likely go through qualifying matches, with other nations having expressed the wish to be included.

"On behalf of the board of directors of the Federazione Italia Rugby League, I would like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to the RLEF for having awarded the tournament to Italy", said the president of the FIRL, Orazio D'arro . "We see the European Under-19 Championship as an event and an essential and fundamental building block that contributes to the development of sport in the region. We are really honored to have the chance to organize this competition. "

All nations will stay at Bella Italia Sports Village, which can accommodate 2,800 people in 13 hotels. At least eight of the games will be held at Stadio Communale G. Teghil, a complex with a stadium for 5,000 people in Lignano.

Chris Thair, Managing Director of RLEF, said: "FIRL has prepared a compelling offer as part of our bidding process and will be hosting a fantastic tournament. To commemorate this working relationship and help gain experience with our staff, the RLEF will lead - for the first time - joint tournament directors, including Tiziano Franchini, from FIRL. Our goal is to ensure that the young people involved have a great sportingexperience regardless of the results achieved. "
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,293
A lot of positives in this, great to see it back after just two years, and setting the trend of this at least being played every 2 years moving forward, great to see another nation outside of the hosts of England / Wales / France, being given the opportunity to host, and great to see at least 8 nations given the chance to take part.

For me, the only part I wish they had changed was reducing the number of automatic qualifiers. A bit like the World Cup, in many ways the Qualifiers almost help grow the game more than the main tournament itself, especially when England and France are a fair way ahead of the other nations.

One spot will most likely mean a very small qualifier pool, however you'd want to be encouraging all European Full and Affiliate Members of the RLEF arguably to be able to pull together an U19s team. That would be Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Germany, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Turkey.

Whilst sending them all to Italy would drastically blow out the event costs, also only having one spot on offer also adds to the costs even if you do knock outs (you'd be looking at 3-4 rounds)... If say Wales, Ireland and Scotland's spots were open (and we know they'd still qualify) you could then pick the spots in just 2 rounds.

Anyway, something for 2022.
 

langpark

First Grade
Messages
5,867
Two things preventing that: Lack of nations with a youth set-up (pretty much any nation that can field an U19 gets passage into this comp). and secondly, costs. Would dramatically increase costs if you set up an entire qualifying process only for 7 nations to compete for 6 spots. I think it's a great start and hopefully there will be more nations at U19 level in the future.
 

italoromano68

Juniors
Messages
13
https://www.ffr13.fr/actualite-a-la-une/litalie-accueillera-le-championnat-deurope-u19-en-2020/
Eight nations will again compete in the European Under-19 Championship in 2020, with Italy hosting the event for the first time. The coastal town of north-east, Lignano Sabbiadoro, will be the base of the biennial to be held from 3 to 13 September 2020.

The defending champions (France), who won the last tournament in Serbia, are among the favorites with England, finalist of a hotly contested final in 2018. The seven nations ranked among the best in the last tournament - including also Wales and Scotland, Serbia, Ireland and Italy - will automatically qualify for the 2020 tournament, if they wish to participate.

Ukraine, who finished eighth, will likely go through qualifying matches, with other nations having expressed the wish to be included.

"On behalf of the board of directors of the Federazione Italia Rugby League, I would like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to the RLEF for having awarded the tournament to Italy", said the president of the FIRL, Orazio D'arro . "We see the European Under-19 Championship as an event and an essential and fundamental building block that contributes to the development of sport in the region. We are really honored to have the chance to organize this competition. "

All nations will stay at Bella Italia Sports Village, which can accommodate 2,800 people in 13 hotels. At least eight of the games will be held at Stadio Communale G. Teghil, a complex with a stadium for 5,000 people in Lignano.

Chris Thair, Managing Director of RLEF, said: "FIRL has prepared a compelling offer as part of our bidding process and will be hosting a fantastic tournament. To commemorate this working relationship and help gain experience with our staff, the RLEF will lead - for the first time - joint tournament directors, including Tiziano Franchini, from FIRL. Our goal is to ensure that the young people involved have a great sportingexperience regardless of the results achieved. "



It would be good to see only domestic players
 

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
Ukraine defeated Turkey to become the 8th nation.

Not sure why other nations did not participate in qualification but Turkey have shown some ambition by having a crack over longer established teams

England
Wales
Scotland
Ireland
France
Italy
Serbia
Ukraine
 

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