A Nations League for Speedway ?

[Bavarian]

Following the example set by the rather successful launch of the UEFA Nations League for Football last week, I believe that a scaled down version would work perfectly for Speedway ?

Instead of having four Leagues (A B C D) as in fooball, there should possibly be only two (A and B, with two Groups of three teams each) to start with in Speedway.

The A League would consist of the big six nations (Great Britain, Poland, Denmark, Australia, Sweden, Russia)

The B League would have the next best six nations (Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia)

Teams should met each other team in their respective group only once in a round robin style tournament, giving each team one home and one away meeting. This should be determined by draw.  

The top two from teh Group stages would go on to meet in a Grand finale (possibly two legs home and away). The bottom two from the A League would either get directly relegated and replaced with the two winners of the B League Groups, or alternatively could go into a promotion / relegaton battle against them.  

This would created a meaningful competition for full six- / seven- / or eight-man International Test Teams in Speedway.

 

 

 

 

[f-s-p]

Sorry but me thinks that the nations should get their own act together at home before thinking about another international anything. Just my opinion.

[SteveLyric2]

23 hours ago, Bavarian said:

Following the example set by the rather successful launch of the UEFA Nations League for Football last week, I believe that a scaled down version would work perfectly for Speedway ?

Instead of having four Leagues (A B C D) as in fooball, there should possibly be only two (A and B, with two Groups of three teams each) to start with in Speedway.

The A League would consist of the big six nations (Great Britain, Poland, Denmark, Australia, Sweden, Russia)

The B League would have the next best six nations (Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, Latvia)

Teams should met each other team in their respective group only once in a round robin style tournament, giving each team one home and one away meeting. This should be determined by draw.  

The top two from teh Group stages would go on to meet in a Grand finale (possibly two legs home and away). The bottom two from the A League would either get directly relegated and replaced with the two winners of the B League Groups, or alternatively could go into a promotion / relegaton battle against them.  

This would created a meaningful competition for full six- / seven- / or eight-man International Test Teams in Speedway.

 

 

 

 

Where it might fall down is when it comes to rider pay rates!?  If the majority of riders expect to get paid as per Polish rates then unless the FIM or whoever coughs up the megabucks it'll never happen - a bit like the 'World Speedway League' a few years ago.

[Bavarian]

Maybe some riders would not want to ride, if the money is not what they expect, I don't know, but that's their own problem then. Pay rates would probably be nearer to what the FIM payed for the SWC, and not what rider get payed in the Polish Legaue. Still, I don't believe that they really would want to miss out, if such a Nations League gets off the ground.

Anyway, there should be some kind of an official FIM competition for full national teams, and such a Nations League scheme would most probably work very well. It would not neccessarily have to be held each year, maybe only every other year, or even only every four years.

Most other sports are able to make money with their national teams, so why shouldn't speedway?

I certainly miss such a competition in speedway, especially now that we don't even have the 4-Team SWC any more ! It's a shame that we have countless individual competitons but not a single one for the national sides, except for a very limited number of international test matches. 

 

 

 

[teaboy279]

Certainly something like this could attract tv interest in countries and on channels not yet seen before.

Something like this would be awesome for top domestic British riders to hibe their skills on other tracks and make that jump upto full international level.

It would need a company like Dorna to run it, if they got involved I think they could push the sport to motorcycle hotbeds yet untapped by speedway like Spain, Japan and South America.

Perhaps rather then home and away fixtures, their could be five European match days

And utilize more weekends in hotter climates in the European winter.

It does seem crazy that a southern hemisphere country has not put up some big money to run a full set of competitions during the European winter. Take the speedway circus to the sun, surely riders would love to earn an income on a bike rather then pack them in the workshops for 6 months.

[iris123]

1 hour ago, teaboy279 said:

Certainly something like this could attract tv interest in countries and on channels not yet seen before.

 

It does seem crazy that a southern hemisphere country has not put up some big money to run a full set of competitions during the European winter. Take the speedway circus to the sun, surely riders would love to earn an income on a bike rather then pack them in the workshops for 6 months.

We can always live in hope.But there isn't even a domestic league of any note in the southern hemisphere,so how they would organise a big comp and attract any sort of sponsorship for this is beyond me.Maybe a multi.millionaire with an interest will come along.The trouble is it is only Australia we are talking about and the distances are enormous.Argentina and back in the early days Uruguay have always had financial problems.In Argentina you are lucky to get the money offered and that goes today just as it did back in the late 20s/early 30s........some things never change!!

Edited September 15, 2018 by iris123

[Bavarian]

Forget teh Southern hemisphere. This is not intended for that at all, as it would be exceedingly expensive and unrealistic, and could not work in the way suggested above.

 

A Nations League in speedway would be very easy to run. Take Group A with the six nations mentioned above, make a draw of the two Groups of three.

Let's say it is Poland, Sweden, and Great Britain drawn in Group 1 , and Denmark, Australia, and Russia in Group 2. (by the way, Australia would probably have to name a British track as their home ground for this competition, if they (or the FIM) will not be able to pay for the visiting team to travel to Australia. Likewise with the USA, who could easily participate in the B League.  

 

Teams of therir respective Groups would meet only once, either at home or away, decided by the luck of the draw, giving each nation one home meeting and one away meeting. Let's suppose Great Britian would face Poland in the UK, then the British team would have to travel to Sweden to meet the Swedes over there. Poland would then have their own home meeting against Sweden. 

To reserve three dates (plus one for the final) in the FIM international calendar, should not be impossible, even more so if this Nations League isn't held each and every year.

With only three meetings per group, either first place or last place (or both) would still be undecided until the third and final match in each Group of the Nations League A. Even if one team wins the first and the second meetings and is therefore already confirmed as the Group winners, the third meeting would still decide who finishes last in the Group and gets relegated, an d be replaced by the winner of the Nation League B for the next time.

 

I honestly believe this would be a very popular competition, and it would be taylor-made for national TV stations. The national team in almost any sport attracts the highest attention with the general sports public, that's a fact. Only in speedway there is no such showpiece event for the national teams (we once had a 4-team SWC tournament, but now we only have the F.I.M.'s rather insignificant SoN Best Pairs).

It is highly likely that a big tournament with the full national speedway teams such as this supposed Nations League would create much more sponsorship for the national team, and that young riders would find a new achievable goal in their speedway career, aiming to make the national team.

If someone says that Poland would nearly always win this competition, they may be right for the time being, but even then this is no different to teh total dominance the All Blacks of New Zealand in Rugby Union International Tests and the World Cup. Yet the All Blacks' dominance has not done the ever rising global popularity of Rugby any harm at all.

Speedway should be prepared to take some unprecedented steps to find a new audience and such a Nations League could help it in a big way.      

   

[Bavarian]

INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEST MATCHES 2018

01/05/2018 @ Pila (PL) . . . POLAND 53, AUSTRALIA 37

13/05/2018 @ Czestochowa (PL) . . . POLAND 59, DENMARK 31

30/05/2018 @ Poznan (PL) . . . POLAND 54, SWEDEN 36

04/08/2018 @ Glasgow (GB) . . . GREAT BRITAIN 33, AUSTRALIA 57

01/09/2018 @ Chorzow (PL) . . . POLAND 46, Rest of the WORLD 44

13/10/2018 @ Dohren (GER) . . . GERMANY 30, Rest of the WORLD 59

13/10/2018 @ Auburn (USA) . . . U.S.A. 52, The WORLD 57

 

2018 International Season Standings . . . wins - losses (points for-against)

1 - POLAND . . . 4 - 0 (212-148)

2 - Rest of the WORLD . . . 2 - 1 (160-128)

3 - AUSTRALIA . . . 1 - 1 (94-86) 

4 - United States of AMERICA . . . 0 - 1 (52-57)

5 - SWEDEN . . . 0 - 1 (36-54)

6 - GREAT BRITAIN . . . 0 - 1 (33-57)

7 - DENMARK . . . 0 - 1 (31-59)

8 - GERMANY . . . 0 - 1 (30-57)  

 

[Bavarian]

Great News !

I have just read that there will be an AUSTRALIA vs Rest of the WORLD speedway test match series in November/Dezember of 2018.