Last October Stephen Kenny found himself in a relative position of strength. Seven goals were dished out to Azerbaijan and Qatar, with none conceded, as the former Dundalk manager could finally take a breath before charting a new road as the Republic of Ireland gaffer.
“In all seriousness,” Kenny began, “when personally marking out the medium to long-term strategy for the team, one of the things we looked at was the Uefa Nations League starting in June. Our ambition is to win the group. We’ll be taking it extremely seriously by prioritising it. That would give us a Euro play-off regardless of how we do in the group.
“I reckon that if we apply ourselves and continue to improve and players get more exposure, we can strive to do that. That’s the ambition, I felt it’s realistic to do that.”
It was going swimmingly until June arrived and the 1-0 collapse to Armenia in Yerevan. Thankfully it was only the Nations League so, similar to the Luxembourg loss at an empty Aviva Stadium in 2021, a ready-made pressure valve could be released.
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Once it was established that neither defeat amounted to a sackable offence, in this FAI period of cautious revival, the circumstances could be explained away, so long as the next result delivered atonement. When the Ukraine (reserves) turned Ireland over a few days later in Dublin, again, there was an escape hatch as the seemingly foolproof 3-4-2-1 system was discarded.
Arise 3-5-2. Arise Michael Obafemi of Swansea City.
A rousing 3-0 win over Scotland at the Aviva reframed the Nations League as vital to the development of a maturing Irish team before a wonder goal by Nathan Collins against Ukraine in Lodz gave real weight to the four-year Uefa project, essentially designed to stamp out mind-numbing friendlies.
So the Nations League really does matter?
It certainly does to FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill’s ongoing search for a shirt sponsor. And it definitely does to Kenny’s legion of loyal ultras.
Without the Nations League there would be no Obafemi. The 22-year-old’s antics would fill a slow news day in the English lower leagues but without him and the NL there would be no ‘Lansdowne Roar’ in 2022. No Obafemi bullet to crush the Scots. No Obafemi scoop-chip to create Troy Parrott’s goal.
Instead of new heroes, there would be this long void of nothingness until the Euros qualification draw in Frankfurt on October 9th.
So, Uefa provides light amidst Fifa darkness?
Not exactly. The Guardian’s David Conn uncovered accusations of “nepotism” and “cronyism” levelled at Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin following the violent scenes in Saint-Denis during the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool.
“The spotlight quickly turned to the appointment last year of Ceferin’s best friend, Zeljko Pavlica, as Uefa’s head of safety and security,” Conn writes.
“For this vital role, bearing overall responsibility for the most prominent European matches in stadiums with huge crowds, Uefa undertook no formal recruitment process when the widely respected departmental head, Kenny Scott, retired. The Paris horror-show was the first Champions League final with a full stadium since Pavlica took over.”
It was also reported that a safety consultant, Steve Frosdick, resigned from Uefa in February with a departing complaint that “the safety department had become corroded by cronyism”.
Patrick Gasser, the former head of Uefa’s football and social responsibility (FSR) sector, also left the organisation after the appointment of Michele Uva, the former Italian FA ceo and Ceferin ally, as director of the FSR.
“I decided I had to leave,” said Gasser. “I would lose my integrity if I played the game and accepted it – especially in the role of football social responsibility, where ethics is everything. To me it was an unacceptable act of nepotism.”
Uefa contested The Guardian’s reporting, stating it “rarely hires top management through an ‘open recruitment process’, as you call it, but rather hires proven professionals based on their expertise, experience, and managerial qualities”.
Did the Nations League matter to France against Austria on Thursday night?
The global audience certainly mattered to Kylian Mbappé, who scribbled a masterpiece to avoid joining Ireland in the B League come the 2024/25 campaign.
The Nations League matters to everyone. The competition is already mobilising the green army and other supporters to burn fossil fuels across Europe. Extra flights to Glasgow? No problem.
But does the Nations League matter to the traditional powers?
Avoiding relegation really does matter. England suffered the drop at the San Siro last night, and you can be sure the FA and Federcalcio had no intention of adding Dublin to their champagne reception list. The FAI’s €63.5 million debt means they might only be served Prosecco.
Spain manager Luis Enrique went so far as to suggest this constant competition can shatter the old order, as Germany, England, Italy and France are accused of not taking these international windows seriously enough.
“We find ourselves in an atypical situation in which the major powers have succumbed, or have come close to succumbing, to the so-called second-tier nations,” said Enrique. “The Nations League has turned the pre-established order upside down and is a clear threat to what could happen at the World Cup in Qatar in just a few months’ time.”
Uefa continue to generate profits as the Nations League brings together the giants of European football for meaningful games. It might also create new goliaths.
The perpetual tournament serves another purpose – offering a distraction from each region’s game of thrones. Whether it’s Viktor Orbán’s homophobic laws, Russian brutality or – as Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the UN this week – the world becoming “inured” to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory, these crimes against humanity are neatly washed clean for our collective psyche by . . . checks notes . . . Germany versus Hungary in Leipzig, Israel versus Albania in Tel Aviv and Scotland in Kraków next Tuesday because Ukraine cannot host international football.
Russia are still banned but Uefa welcomed Belarus back inside the tent, despite a formal request from Euro 2024 hosts Germany to block the military allies of the Vladimir Putin regime.
The governing body also fined Ukraine head coach Oleksandr Petrakov for voicing a desire to take up arms to defend his native Kyiv. Age 65, Petrakov accepted he can better serve the cause by becoming the most visible spokesperson condemning the invasion.
Uefa will not allow Ukraine and Belarus to meet (unless it’s in the knockout stages of the actual Euros in front of hundreds of millions of spectators). Same goes for Azerbaijan and Armenia, Spain and Gibraltar, and both Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina facing Kosovo.
The League of Nations, whose principal mission was to preserve world peace, was dissolved in April 1946. The Nations League is no mere talking shop, it’s a fully functioning replacement for the poor entertainment that was provided by international friendlies. And it matters. Don’t take our word for it, see Mbappé's lightning reaction to the threat of relegation.
