A football match with an unusual conflict of interest

European women’s football leagues have been halted for the past two weeks to make room for national team matches. In fact, the last rounds of the Nations League are coming to an end, the biennial competition that contributes to the qualifications for both the European Championships and the Paris Olympic Games. In recent days there has been talk about Italy’s victory against reigning world champion Spain, while in the United Kingdom there is an issue regarding an unusual conflict of interest in the match that England and Scotland play on Tuesday evening in Glasgow.

The one underway is the first edition of the Nations League, which like its men’s version is a tournament divided into groups: in the first (League A) the best national teams on the continent play divided into four groups. The top-ranked teams in each group qualify for the final phase, which will be played later: given the concomitance with the Paris Olympics, in this edition the two finalists will automatically qualify for the Olympic tournament.

At the Olympics the British national teams – therefore England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – play together as the United Kingdom, whose qualification, however, depends solely and exclusively on England’s results. The latter is in full swing to get it, but on the last day of the Nations League they will have to overcome the Netherlands, first on equal points in their group but with a better goal difference. This is precisely where the conflict of interest arises: to hope to qualify for the Olympics, England must clearly beat Scotland, whose players will then be among the possible squads of the United Kingdom for the Paris Olympics. A victory for England could therefore bring the same Scottish players to the Olympics who could deny it on Tuesday evening.

Added to this is the fact that it is not just any match, but England-Scotland, the British rivalry par excellence, which finds expression above all in sport (in rugby, for example, the Scots usually call it “peacock hunting” the matches played against the English, historically accused of vanity and presumption by their rivals).

What’s more, the match is played in Glasgow with a largely Scottish crowd who probably don’t want to know about losing against England (or perhaps about playing them together at the Olympics). The Netherlands will play at the same time against Belgium, and are favourites: this means that in the event of a Dutch victory, England will not only be enough to win, but will have to do so with a margin of more than three goals (which will eventually be conceded by Sandy MacIver , Scotland goalkeeper who until last October was called up by England).

In the United Kingdom it has been talked about for days and in a press conference the Dutch coach of England Sarina Wiegman (another crossroads of these qualifiers) said: «I understand that there is a lot of talk about it. But if you have followed our group and above all if you know their history and that of England, there is no possibility that anyone will give up playing this match. They really want to beat us, and we want to beat them.” England midfielder Keira Walsh was of the same opinion: “No one can doubt our professionalism.”

Il Guardian in the meantime he wondered whether something should change, in the draws of the women’s Nations League or in the composition of the Olympic tournament. In the first case it is difficult for it to happen, given that limiting the crossings between four national teams could be a significant organizational problem. More plausible could be a change to the women’s Olympic tournament, which unlike the men’s tournament is still played by the senior national teams and not by the Under 23 teams.

– Read also: Women’s football has returned to the Milan Arena

2023-12-05 14:33:27
#football #match #unusual #conflict #interest