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A32 sports
Diaranson 21 september 2022
World Cup, Euro 2024 already weigh on Nations League games
League games in seven days The draw is expected to have
to earn promotion. seven five-team groups and
three six-team groups, with
Ukraine, which lost in the the top two in each advanc-
World Cup playoffs and failed ing.
to qualify for the tournament
in Qatar, starts on Wednes- The 12 teams competing in
day in Scotland. The team the Euro 2024 playoffs for
then travels to Armenia on three places at the tourna-
Saturday and finishes against ment will be selected accord-
Scotland again next Tuesday. ing to Nations League stand-
Ukraine will host that game ings. All group winners next
in Kraków, Poland. Tuesday are assured of a play-
off place.
Russia was removed from its
second-tier group by UEFA TESTING SQUAD
and automatically demoted STRENGTH
to the third tier for the 2024
edition, leaving Israel, Ice- The World Cup is taking
land and Albania to play in a place in the heart of the tra-
three-team pool for promo- ditional European season for
(AP) – The 13 European 53 games over seven days. League in 2024. tion. the first time, leaving nation-
national teams going to In the 16-team League A, the al team coaches little prepara-
this year's World Cup will top team in each of the four HAALAND, UKRAINE EURO 2024 tion time.
play their last competitive groups will advance to the RISING
soccer games in the Na- Final Four tournament. The The qualifying group draw Typically, teams have two or
tions League this week, current leaders are Denmark, Teams leading second-tier for the Euro 2024 tourna- three friendly games in an
two months before the Spain, Hungary and the groups and challenging for ment in Germany will be extended build-up to a tour-
tournament starts in Qa- Netherlands. promotion include Norway made Oct. 9 in Frankfurt and nament. Not this time, with
tar. — led by Erling Haaland's will be affected by the Na- most World Cup teams hav-
The Final Four tournament, five goals in four games — tions League. ing only one week together
For the rest of continent's scheduled for June 14-18, and Ukraine. before group play starts.
teams — with the exception will be hosted by the winner The four top-tier group win-
of Russia, which has been of the group that includes the Norway, which did not qual- ners next week will go into a This international break is
suspended because of the war Netherlands and Belgium. ify for the World Cup, can Euro 2024 qualifying group key for coaches to put ideas
in Ukraine — next week's fi- Those two countries will earn promotion on Tuesday of only five teams to clear in place and maybe test squad
nal Nations League standings meet in the decisive match in against Serbia. their schedules for the Na- strength.
will decide the playoff path Group A4 on Sunday in the tions League Final Four.
some will need to qualify for Netherlands. Ukraine has been unable to Indeed, for some players, de-
the 2024 European Champi- host games in international The Euro 2024 qualifying cisive Nations League quali-
onship. Other standout games in- competitions because of the draw is expected to have 53 fiers essentially double up as
clude: Portugal vs. Spain on Russian invasion and now teams, leaving out host Ger- trials to get into World Cup
Elsewhere in Europe, World Tuesday; Denmark vs. France has to play three Nations many and suspended Russia. squads.
Cup-bound teams includ- on Sunday; and Italy vs. Eng-
ing Brazil, the United States, land on Friday.
Ghana, Japan and Qatar will T-wolves' Edwards fined $40K by NBA for
play warmup games. Those last two games have
relegation implications. homophobic remark
NATIONS LEAGUE World Cup champion France
and England are currently in
The group stage of the Na- last place in their groups and (AP) — Minnesota Tim- hurtful, and disrespectful, by the league in the past for
tions League will be com- could be relegated to the sec- berwolves guard Anthony and I'm incredibly sorry. It's anti-gay language.
pleted with 54 teams playing ond tier for the next Nations Edwards was fined $40,000 unacceptable for me or any-
by the NBA on Tuesday one to use that language in The first overall pick in the
for homophobic com- such a hurtful way," Edwards 2020 draft, Edwards was
ments he made on social tweeted last week. "There's Minnesota's second-leading
media. no excuse for it, at all. I was scorer last season with an
raised better than that!" average of 21.3 points per
The league announced the game that ranked 19th in the
punishment for Edwards' use Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, league. His average of 1.5
of "offensive and derogatory Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bry- steals per game was 13th in
language" in a since-delet- ant are among the NBA play- the NBA.
ed Instagram video he later ers who've been disciplined
apologized for.
Edwards recorded a group of
men on a sidewalk from a ve-
hicle he was inside and could
be heard in making a dis-
paraging, profane comment
about what he assumed to be
their sexual orientation. He
posted an apology on Twit-
ter soon after, and the Tim-
berwolves issued a statement
reprimanding their young
star
"What I said was immature,