We learned today that Ireland will face familiar foes in the UEFA Nations League: Denmark and Wales.
Sky Sports News carried live coverage of the draw, so as to be able to pepper the coverage with some not-so-subtle mentions of the fact that the competition is live on Sky Sports.
To buttress their coverage, they booked Danny Mills to offer some, er, expert analysis. Granted, the Nations League is quite difficult to understand when we wade into the realm of qualification for Euro 2020, which is explained in more depth here. But part of it is pretty basic. Four Leagues (A, B,C, and D), consisting of four groups. The top side in each group is promoted to the League above them; the bottom side is relegated.
Sadly, Mills popped up with almost no knowledge of how it works, and ended up wrapping himself up in exasperated ignorance, screaming questions into a void.
It should be noted that the Sky presenter didn't have a clue what was going on, either.
Before that, Mills blathered incorrectly about whether England would want to actually win the tournament (good to see that the old English self-confidence is back, putting victory from a group featuring Spain and Croatia as nothing but a matter of desire) as it could cause fixture congestion.
If England were to top their group, they would qualify for a semi-final and either the final or 3rd-place playoff in a mini-tournament staged between June 5th and 9th.
Mills, however, questioned whether or not England actually wanted to win it.
The only question I have of this, do you want to win your group and have another couple of friendlies in a congested fixture schedule? These finals are in June, when players want a break. And you might have another two games, would you have a friendly between June 5th or 9th?
Firstly, if England don't qualify for the final of the Nations League, they are slated to have a couple of Euro 2020 qualifiers in between the June 5th-9th window.
Secondly, would England have an international friendly at the beginning of June? Well, they did in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
Oh, and the Nations League is not a friendly competition, all games are officially recognised by FIFA as competitive.
