European Championships 2020 - any news?

[Jim from Oz]

Well Groups C and D are open draw, which pretty much means they'll be played whenever they can. The Group D final being in 2022 means that the teams only have a guaranteed 3 games over the next 3 years, without organising more games for themselves.

Group B meanwhile is fixed draw for this year, with Greece playing World Cup next year you'd think Russia and Serbia will find new opponents for 2021, most likely from Group C?

I don’t think it will be held in 2021, that is when the World Cup is on. I think it will be every two years 2020, 2022, 2024 etc

 

[Springs09]

I don’t think it will be held in 2021, that is when the World Cup is on. I think it will be every two years 2020, 2022, 2024 etc

Yes, what I meant was the non-World Cup teams will likely play other games during 2021. For example Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria played the Balkans Cup in 2017.

 

[adamkungl]

Not really a fan of what they've done here, kinda falls short for me. We all have major criticisms of the Oceania Cup but what it has done is elevate the profile and competitive intensity of the 2nd tier nations. Despite the expansion here I think it will do little to change anything. Will continue to struggle to attract professional players and significant audiences.

England or England Knights should be in the top tier. 3 games v Australia isn't exactly a packed calendar. Another year where they ignore their neighbours completely.

I'd have had all tiers as 4 teams where possible. It's a better format and keeps the quality nice and tight.

I really think this would be more successful on every measure:

A
England France Wales Ireland

B
Scotland Italy Spain Greece

C
Russia Serbia Norway Ukraine

D
Germany Malta Netherlands Czechia Turkey

 

[Arucard]

Not really a fan of what they've done here, kinda falls short for me. We all have major criticisms of the Oceania Cup but what it has done is elevate the profile and competitive intensity of the 2nd tier nations. Despite the expansion here I think it will do little to change anything. Will continue to struggle to attract professional players and significant audiences.

England or England Knights should be in the top tier. 3 games v Australia isn't exactly a packed calendar. Another year where they ignore their neighbours completely.

I'd have had all tiers as 4 teams where possible. It's a better format and keeps the quality nice and tight.

I really think this would be more successful on every measure:

A
England France Wales Ireland

B
Scotland Italy Spain Greece

C
Russia Serbia Norway Ukraine

D
Germany Malta Netherlands Czechia Turkey

England's priorities are obviously on winning a series against Australia and preparing for the World Cup. They want all public attention for their brand during this period without any side attractions.
Going forward from 2022 on, with England back into the equation, the format will have to change again anyway. Your idea works better in that case going forward. For this edition I think they've got it right, other than Spain and Greece. That must be a case of logistics though.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Love the committment to it and there seems to be a push for it to be more professionally run with a locked in two year cycle, early tournament announcements and England involved from 2022.

The Greece thing is a strange one through considering they are a world cup nation. Minor complaint though, if they are good enough they'll earn promotion. This should see the game go up a few levels in some of these nations in terms of getting interest in home fixutres, sponsorship and possibly a broadcaster.

The game I grew up with is finally growing up itself.

 

[adamkungl]

Re: Greece and Spain.

Spain won the last group B.
Greece won the last group C.
While Italy for some reason didn't participate.

The in-between final qualifiers for the WC didn't count for promotion.

 

[langpark]

I think given the shoestring budget that RLEF is working with, this is a pretty got format. Effectively, they are all groups of 3, except group D, which I believe spans 2 years. With groups of 3, everyone plays one home and one away, and there is minimal messing around, minimal expense, and no nation can claim the advantage/disadvantage of having one more/less home match than the others.

 

[siv]

After seeing the Euro D of two 2 team pools who play home and away

Why can't the two winners final be also played in 2020 ?

 

[adamkungl]

Top tier is
A1 - France Italy Scotland
A2 - Ireland Wales Spain

Oct 17-18 France v Italy, Ireland v Spain
Oct 24-25 Italy v Scotland, Wales v Ireland
Oct 31-Nov 1 Scotland v France, Spain v Wales

The RLEF has suggested that the week off for each team may be used to schedule another game.

 

[adamkungl]

RLEF Director, Colin Kleyweg was on ChasingKangaroos Podcast to discuss the Euros
Some answers regarding P&R and formats were a bit disappointing/non-committal. We're going to have to accept that growth here will be a slow burn... but good to see progress at any rate.

All of the following are limited largely due to finances. There is a focus on getting broadcast, sponsors, money into the game which will hopefully allow more flexibility and growth in future to do the things we all want to see.

Firstly, he mentioned that a Final for group A isn't necessarily locked in. Hopefully this is a bit of crossed-wires as they talked up a Championship final in the press release.

Relegation is not yet confirmed, but it seems like it's unlikely for 2020 and will come back into play in 2022. If this is indeed the case, that's a weird decision considering it doesn't cost anything.
IF England accept their invite for 2022, there will probably be a relegation playoff from group A. Otherwise it seems they'll all stay locked in for 2 years.
Again I'm hoping there are some crossed wires here as the Euros have had P&R in the past.

Group B and C seem very unlikely to have a final and will be a simple 3-way first past the post.

Group D will be split into pairs playing each other home and away, and Kleyweg indicated a final and promotion is unlikely.

 

[Springs09]

No final for the top tier makes no sense. How would anyone be the winner if there are two separate pools?

 

[adamkungl]

No final for the top tier makes no sense. How would anyone be the winner if there are two separate pools?

Yeah I'm hoping he's made a mistake here
Considering they already talked up a final and how valuable that is for broadcast plans

 

[yakstorm]

That's surprising some of his comments, especially when the official media release stated:

"In the senior Championship, holders France, Scotland, Ireland and Wales will be joined by Italy and, for the first time, Spain, with a final to be held - most likely in France, on 7 or 8th November - and relegation to European Championship B introduced."

And

"In the inaugural European Championship D, an open draw will involve four nations: Netherlands, Czech Republic, debutants Turkey and Malta, with a final to be played in May/June 2022."

You then have the RLEF Facebook page saying "Winner of Netherlands vs Turkey and Malta vs Czechia will meet in the summer of 2021 in a match for promotion to Group C."


Hopefully it is Colin who is wrong and not the Media Release or FB Post.

 

[adamkungl]

Agreed. Like i said I'm hoping there are some wires crossed.
Greece, should they win B, I'm sure don't want to be denied their fair shot at the big boys in 2022.

Speaking of.. another dislike I have of the 2x3 format and the flimsy participation of the tier 1 nations...

Should England accept their invitation in 2022, that means either 2 teams are relegated to allow for promotion of the B winner, which is pretty rough, OR the B comp becomes meaningless with no promotion.