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Granno

Uefa to expand Euro championship

By Granno, in General Football and Sport

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Granno

Granno

Posted
Posted
The European championship is set to be expanded to feature 24 teams from 2016 instead of the current 16, according to Franz Beckenbauer.

A Uefa executive committee meeting on Thursday discussed the issue and will rubber-stamp the decision on Friday.

"Yes for sure it's going to be 24 teams," said Beckenbauer, who is vice-chairman of Uefa's development and technical assistance committee.

"The European Championships will not lose any quality by that."

Former German international Beckenbauer is not a Uefa executive committee member but is a European Fifa executive member who sits in on the meetings as a non-voting observer.

The proposal to expand the competition was put forward by the Scottish Football Association and Football Association of Ireland last year.

The new format will mean fewer countries will have the capacity to host the tournament but it is believed the 53 member nations are unanimously in favour of the change.

"I think the expansion will be better for the game - more teams will have the chance of qualifying and the excitement of the groups will go on for longer," said Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith.

"It is disappointing in that it means we will not be able to stage the tournament in the future, and we recognise that will be the case.

"It was a trade-off between trying to stage it or open up the qualification process and we have decided to look at something that helps everybody."

Spain emerged victorious at Euro 2008 earlier this year at a tournament where there was no presence from the home nations.

The expanded version should mean it is easier for Scotland and other home nations to qualify but Smith added: "It will make it easier for other countries such as England who failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

"We didn't do it specifically for that purpose however."

BBC

LeeCovFox

LeeCovFox

Posted
Posted

Shocking idea. So just under half of Europe would qualify for the competition? Also, doing this would mean one of two other things. Expanding the groups to six teams each, which would drag it on for too long and mean a lot of potentially meaningless matches, or introducing a farcical "best third placed team system" with 6 groups, a system which was silly when it was used in the World Cup.

Webbo

Webbo

Posted
Posted

In a way it's a good thing when there are joint hosts who automatically qualify, but when you eliminate countries like Luxembourg, Andorra, the Faroh islands and Liechtenstein (and Wales :whistle: ) it's going to be harder not to qualify than it is to miss out.

Jack

Jack

Posted
Posted

This could prove good for us.

If we along with a loada shit teams qualify and the draw is kind to us we should be winning against the shite which will give the team confidence and the momentum to carry on winning games and give us more of a chance to win something.

Bert

Bert

Posted
Posted
:yahoo: :mrgreen: :dance::cheers::clap::scarf: :thumbsup: :bounce::banana: :banana: :laugh: :wub:

... and we still won't fucking qualify.

If you didn't say it, I was goona. :P

The Blur

The Blur

Posted
Posted

Not bad, it would give some of the poorer countries a chance to develop by playing in tournaments and being exposed look at Austria they was bad in their first game in Euro 2008, second game they was quite bad but thrid game they actually played some decent stuff

But it might result in meaningless matches but World Cup was succesful with 32 teams

shen

shen

Posted
Posted

It's so bleeding obvious that it's all about the $$$$

The quality of the tourno will deteriorate, but UEFA won't care one bit as long as TV companies cash in on all us idiots watching Israel against Slovakia in a dull meaningless group game....

Finnegan

Finnegan

Posted
Posted
It's so bleeding obvious that it's all about the $$$$

The quality of the tourno will deteriorate, but UEFA won't care one bit as long as TV companies cash in on all us idiots watching Israel against Slovakia in a dull meaningless group game....

Maybe I'm biased, being from one of these so-called minnow nations, but this mentality really, really baffles me.

The tournament will still be smaller than the World Cup and will still end up including more quality teams. The likes of Slovakia and Israel are still an improvement in quality to teams like (as much as I love 'em[!]) Japan or, I dunno, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad & Tobago, Paraguay, Costa Rica and any other number of teams that get in the WC that nobody complains about.

Moreover, I think it also needs to be highlighted the amount of surprise packages that often crop up from smaller nations in these tournaments. Teams like Greece, South Korea, Australia, Turkey, the USA or the Ivory Coast that clearly lack the so-called quality of the major nations but end up playing with boundless more enthusiasm and enchanting far more fans.

I cannot name a single, single negative of expanding the tournament. It'll still be smaller than the World Cup, it'll still be as prestigious as it is now, we'll just get to see even more football in the summer and we'll get to see some of us borderline nations given a chance to really develop on the international stage. Bring it on!

shen

shen

Posted
Posted
Maybe I'm biased, being from one of these so-called minnow nations, but this mentality really, really baffles me.

The tournament will still be smaller than the World Cup and will still end up including more quality teams. The likes of Slovakia and Israel are still an improvement in quality to teams like (as much as I love 'em[!]) Japan or, I dunno, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad & Tobago, Paraguay, Costa Rica and any other number of teams that get in the WC that nobody complains about.

Moreover, I think it also needs to be highlighted the amount of surprise packages that often crop up from smaller nations in these tournaments. Teams like Greece, South Korea, Australia, Turkey, the USA or the Ivory Coast that clearly lack the so-called quality of the major nations but end up playing with boundless more enthusiasm and enchanting far more fans.

I cannot name a single, single negative of expanding the tournament. It'll still be smaller than the World Cup, it'll still be as prestigious as it is now, we'll just get to see even more football in the summer and we'll get to see some of us borderline nations given a chance to really develop on the international stage. Bring it on!

I'm from one of these 'smaller' nations as well.

But your point rests on it still being smaller and of better quality than the WC. I just don't see a reason to water down the level of quality in the Euros. Look what it's done to the World Cup! Now, hardly anyone disagrees that the quality of football is higher in the Euros than in the WC.

I simply disagree that Japan, Paraguay, Iran etc are worse than Israel or Slovakia. They're very much on par. And the amount of surprises we have in the EC is in fact already quite high! In the last five ECs you've had two huge surprises (Denmark & Greece) and two moderate surprises (Czech Rep & Turkey), with three of them at least making the final. In the last five WCs NONE of the surprise packages have made it to the final. A few moderate surprises like Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey and South Korea have added some excitement, but even in the potential World Cupset of 2002, with USA, South Korea, Senegal and Turkey all making it to the quarters, not one team made it.

So my point is, why change the format of a tournament that dishes out high quality football, excitement and is full of surprises?

And I think that my point of UEFA only thinking about money and nothing else is still very plausible...

lildave3

lildave3

Posted
Posted
I'm from one of these 'smaller' nations as well.

But your point rests on it still being smaller and of better quality than the WC. I just don't see a reason to water down the level of quality in the Euros. Look what it's done to the World Cup! Now, hardly anyone disagrees that the quality of football is higher in the Euros than in the WC.

I simply disagree that Japan, Paraguay, Iran etc are worse than Israel or Slovakia. They're very much on par. And the amount of surprises we have in the EC is in fact already quite high! In the last five ECs you've had two huge surprises (Denmark & Greece) and two moderate surprises (Czech Rep & Turkey), with three of them at least making the final. In the last five WCs NONE of the surprise packages have made it to the final. A few moderate surprises like Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey and South Korea have added some excitement, but even in the potential World Cupset of 2002, with USA, South Korea, Senegal and Turkey all making it to the quarters, not one team made it.

So my point is, why change the format of a tournament that dishes out high quality football, excitement and is full of surprises?

And I think that my point of UEFA only thinking about money and nothing else is still very plausible...

Turkey made it to the Semi's thankyou very much. I think South Korea did too? :unsure:

Or do you mean made it to the final?

Alexikokopops

Alexikokopops

Posted
Posted
Turkey made it to the Semi's thankyou very much. I think South Korea did too? :unsure:

Or do you mean made it to the final?

I'm pretty sure Shen's point was that lots of "surprise" teams made it to the quarters but didn't make it to the final. So yes, to that second bit.

lildave3

lildave3

Posted
Posted
I'm pretty sure Shen's point was that lots of "surprise" teams made it to the quarters but didn't make it to the final. So yes, to that second bit.

Fair enough.

Although my main aim was to remind people that Turkey made it to the Semi's :P

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