UEFA's newly established League of Nations draw will take place today.
The ceremony will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland 15:00 Baku time. AFFA General Secretary Elkhan Mammadov and head coach of the national team Gurban Gurbanov will represent Azerbaijan at the event. The national teams of 55 UEFA member teams are divided into 4 league and baskets in line with their positions in the continental football rating. 1st - 12th places A, 13th – 24th places B, 25th and 39th places C, 40th and 55th places in Group D. Winners of 4 groups in A league will qualify for the final round, which will be held in June 2019. Here semi-final, 3rd place match and final will be played. Group winners of B, C, and D leagues will win the top division. A, B and C are the last ones in the league. The more important thing is that winners of the A, B, C and D leagues will qualify for Euro 2020. The winners will be determined in the Fourth Final, which will be held among the top teams in each league. Here there will be a semi-final and final match.
According to the UEFA Executive Committee's decision, Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as Russia and Ukraine cannot be in the same group due to the relations between the two countries. However, the fact that the teams representing these countries will face in the play-off phase will be inevitable. Preventing national teams from flying long distance during the draw was also taken into consideration. This is related to the Azerbaijan which is in D group. UEFA Azerbaijan - Gibraltar, Kazakhstan - Gibraltar, Kazakhstan - Andorra and Kazakhstan - Faroe Islands are considered distant. Only one of these 4 pairs will be included in the same group. In other words, Azerbaijan may only be able to play against Gibraltar if Kazakhstan included in other group.
During the draw, the restrictions will be imposed on countries with a winter conditions. For this reason, only two of the four teams in Norway, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania will be in the same group.
Notably, the draw will start with the first basket of the D League, where the Azerbaijani team is included.
report.az