UEFA Nations League Gives Europe Advantage When Preparing For Qatar 2022 World Cup

There’s 173 days to go until the start of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. But for international head coaches, there’s effectively just 31 days left to drill their teams before the World Cup kicks off.

Players will be released from their club teams for the World Cup on November 14th, meaning there’s just about room to squeeze in one friendly match before the tournament starts. Apart from that, after the end of June, there’s just the September international break. That makes this current bumper international break in June crucial for coaches looking to try out new options or bed in new players.

England boss Gareth Southgate will be looking to use the upcoming Nations League matches to get a first look up close at Leicester City defender James Justin and West Ham United midfielder Jarrod Bowen, as well as seeing a bit more of Serie A winner Fikayo Tomori and Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher, who impressed in a breakout season on loan at Crystal Palace.

But while Southgate can test those players against Hungary, Italy and Germany, other World Cup sides from outside Europe are not so lucky.

Ahead of their first World Cup since 1986, Canada have matches against Honduras, Curacao and Panama, perhaps not the best preparation for facing the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne or Luka Modric. Canada’s three opponents this June have an average FIFA ranking of 74, fifty places worse than Morocco, their weakest-ranked World Cup opponent.

That’s partly of their own making; Canada were due to play Iran but cancelled that fixture for political reasons and replaced it with the Panama match.

But Canada’s lack of games against non-North American opposition is also partly due to UEFA’s Nations League.

The Nations League means European sides will be playing each other in June and September, apart from a few exceptions such as Italy’s “Finalissima” match against Argentina.

That leaves the rest of the world to play against each other. As those non-European nations will likely have to get decent results against European opposition to progress at the World Cup, a bit of practice against similar opponents so they can fine-tune their tactics wouldn’t hurt. No disrespect to Curacao, but none of their players are on Kevin De Bruyne’s level.

Canada are better off than some other nations though; Cameroon have just one game against lowly-ranked Burundi in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. Iran also only have one match against Uruguay lined up, and there are reports that this match might not even happen. Senegal have just two games, AFCON qualifiers against Benin and Rwanda, while Saudi Arabia have friendlies against Colombia and Venezuela.

Other teams outside Europe at least have a full fixture list, with Japan and Korea both stacking up four friendly matches and playing three more games outside of the international break in the East Asian Cup in July, which will give their managers a chance to see fringe players who play locally.

They both also will get the chance to test themselves against Brazil, although with Neymar and company pictured in Seoul’s nightclubs in the early hours of the morning and several of their teammates having just played in the Champions League final, those fixtures might not provide as stern a test as the Nations League workouts that European sides are getting.

Those two matches in East Asia are the only ones that Brazil have lined up for this international break, so head coach Tite won’t have much of a chance to experiment with his squad either.

Every nation that’s won the World Cup borders another World Cup winner. Part of the reason for that is the benefit of playing regularly against strong opponents from nearby countries and learning through those games over time. The Nations League format, while improving the quality of European international games by adding a competitive edge, closes the door on nations outside Europe, who are unable to hone their skills against high-quality opponents.

Coaches like Southgate have been given an advantage against the rest of the world this June. Should they take it, they will likely be better prepared when the World Cup kicks off on November 21^st.