European Championship Qualifying Revamp

The European Championship in 2016 is expanding to a final of 24 teams resulting in almost half of Europe will compete in the finals. A qualifying competition lasting eighteen months based on the previous method of qualifying is bound  to produce tedious matches as some teams will have done enough to qualify within the first four games. With mismatches and meaningless games it is no wonder that club is becoming more important than country.
 
UEFA  promise an exciting qualifying tournament but I am not so sure. I propose looking at a new way of qualifying based on a European Nations League system which would result in Promotion/Relegation which would carry forward to the next qualifiers in 4 years time.

The system below would create competitive matches throughout. Positions would have double importance. First for qualifying for this tournament but also influencing the likelihood of qualifying for the next tournament. 

There are also a lack of competitive matches between the big countries in Europe. England haven't played Belgium, Spain or Netherlands this century in a competitive match. Spain and Germany have met twice in 20 years. European Club football thrives on matches between the top clubs, but international football shy's away from them. One game every four years would not mean overkill for these matches. South America doesn't seem to have a problem with Brazil playing Argentina.

Based on todays FIFA rankings the divisions would be as so

 
Premier Division 1
Spain
Germany

Portugal

Switzerland
Italy

Netherlands
Belgium

Greece  ----------

England

Croatia  
Premier Division 2
Bosnia-Herzegovenia

Ukraine -----------
France
Denmark
Russia

SwedenSlovenia
Serbia
-------------
Armenia
Czech Republic

Div 3 NorthWest                    Div 3 South East 
Scotland                                Romania
Austria                                   Turkey
---------------                             -----------------
Iceland                                   Hungary
Wales                                     Montenegro
Norway                                   Slovakia
Finland                                   Albania
Republic of Ireland                 Israel
Poland                                    Bulgaria
---------------                              -------------------
Northern Ireland                     Belarus
Estonia                                   Macedonia
 
Div 4 North West                  Div 4 South East
Luxembourg                           Azerbaijan
Malta                                      Lithuania
---------------                             ---------------------
Liechtenstein                          Georgia
Faerie Islands                         Moldova
Andorra                                   Latvia
San Marino                             Cyprus
Gibraltar                                  Kazakhstan 

Each team would play each other once. 9 international for the top three divisons, 6 for the bottom league. This allows plenty of time for friendlies and get together in the spare weeks. There would be some teams playing four and some five at home but this could be reversed in the following tournament.

If the league tables finished as above, then those in red would qualify for the European Championship. Those in orange would qualify for the play offs. With a host nation making a total of 24.

Those in the bottom two or top two would be promoted or relegated for the start of the next tournament qualifiers ie.2020

The competition above would be competitive throughout with clubs having something to play for throughout the tournament. There are no mismatches. Clubs who have made big improvements in four years will still have a great chance of reaching the tournament final despite relegation in the previous competition.

This would lead to a new competition, the European Nation League every four years which could be marketed successfully by UEFA and provided much greater TV and sponsorship receipts that would be filtered through the nations, so even the weaker nations would be financially better off despite not having to play any top seeds.

Who would be the first nation to do the European Nations League & European Championship double?

Surely the above is a more meaningful and interesting way for European Internationals over the next two years. The World Cup format would remain unchanged.

Let me know what you think Sepp?