Times Exclusive: UEFA considering allowing UEFA Nations League to qualify for World Cup qualifiers, or adopting Swiss system

Hupu reported on October 12th that according to an exclusive report by Times chief reporter Martyn Ziegler, UEFA will conduct a major review of the qualifiers due to concerns that fans and broadcasters will lose interest in the international qualifiers.

The UEFA National Team Committee has established a working group to study modifications to the men's World Cup and European Cup qualifiers.

The working group will consider a number of different formats, including whether to continue using the Nations League as a qualifier, or adopt the Swiss format used in the Champions League.

A source familiar with the matter told The Times that they had been informed of the change at a meeting of 55 UEFA secretaries-general held in Malaga two weeks ago. Delegates also discussed the pros and cons of the National League and the Swiss model.

The source said: "The broadcast revenue and fan participation of the international qualifiers have been declining, but the broadcast revenue and fan participation of the UEFA Nations League are rising.

This issue has been considered before, but it is difficult to find a company that can both The right solution to leave some risks to big countries, maintain competitiveness, and give small teams opportunities at the same time."

Since 2023, UEFA has used the Women's Nations League as a qualifying competition for women's football in the European Cup, World Cup and Olympic Games. A new working group will consider whether to extend the system to the men's competition.

One concern with using the Nations League (where teams are promoted or relegated to different tiers during the Nations League) is that it could reduce the number of games between smaller nations and more powerful opponents that often bring huge economic benefits.

Another option to be discussed is whether the Swiss model used in the men's Champions League, Europa League and UEFA Europa League could be used. That means all 55 national teams will play six to eight games against a range of opponents depending on seeding — they will only play each team once, rather than home and away.

Under the current system, England will play 8 World Cup qualifiers, playing home and away games against Serbia, Albania, Latvia and Andorra. Sources said the broadcasters considered none of the matches to be very attractive.

Using the Swiss format, the England team can play several games with teams with similar rankings and weaker teams. Match results will be aggregated into a huge single league table to determine promotion. For example, if there are 16 seats for the World Cup, the top 12 teams will automatically advance, and the remaining 8 teams will participate in the play-offs to compete for the remaining 4 seats.

However, another source said that despite the success of the new Champions League format, there are differences between club and national team competitions and the Swiss format "is not a panacea."