24 teams for Euro 2016

24 teams for Euro 2016

http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/79368,euro-championships-set-to-expand.aspx

THE European Championship looks certain to be expanded from 16 to 24 teams after the proposal won universal support from UEFA's 53 member countries. THE European Championship looks certain to be expanded from 16 to 24 teams after the proposal won universal support from UEFA's 53 member countries.

A final decision will be taken by UEFA's executive committee in September but there was no opposition to the plan when it was raised at a meeting of association presidents and general secretaries in Vienna on Saturday.

The change would come into force for Euro 2016 and was originally put forward by the Scottish FA last year. Their chief executive Gordon Smith said he was delighted by the response.

Smith said: "It's something UEFA have seen no real disadvantage to - it will only means a few extra days of the tournament and there is no down side in terms of loss of revenue.

"The feeling in the meeting was everyone else was in favour as well. There's an appetite for it, everyone appreciated the advantages and no one spoke against it.

"It will make the qualifying competition more attractive as more teams come into the mix and that will keep the group alive longer.

"We just missed out for this tournament behind Italy and France but under the proposed new regulations we would have qualified."

An Italian Football Federation spokesman said: "It was 100%, it will happen for 2016 and it will boost the smaller nations."

UEFA president Michel Platini had earlier insisted that increasing the size of the tournament would not affect the quality of the competition.

He said: "Remember, I won the Euros [in 1984] when there were only eight teams.

"It is not certain it was better with eight teams than 16 or that 16 is better than 24 or 32 or 54.

"I am not worried about the quality by increasing the number of teams. Countries like England, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Serbia, Ukraine and Bulgaria all have the ability to participate in a European Championship.

"Would they reduce the quality of the Euro? I believe they have the quality to take part. There are teams that could be at the Euros and even enhance the quality of the competition."

The European Championship finals were between just four teams from 1960 until 1976, and that rose to eight teams in 1980. The first 16-team finals were at Euro '96 in England.


Looks pretty good, I'm optimistic.

I reckon start with 20 first. four groups of 5.

Bollocks!! 16 is perfect. UEFA must love ruining a good thing.

it'll just be like after the group stage of the champions league. except without the home/away part

Pretty much so England have better chances of getting in.

Well Scotland mooted the idea, i dont understand why they think its a good idea aye?

Kids these days huh?

Haha. I did read the article.... Just after I posted the comment. Still I like the 16 team tournament and think 24 teams will take a lot of competiveness from qualifying. Still if UEFA want the moolah......

If it ain't broke...

Agree.  16 team tournament works well.  Quality across the board. Tidy format. And makes the qualifiers more meaningful.

Pretty stupid move. UEFA has 53 members, so a 24 team tournament pretty much means that half of Europe will get to the Championships. The qualifiers will lose their meaning, 24 team tournament is a nightmare to manage from a structural point of view (such as the World Cups in the 1980s and 1990s), and Platini's point about the expansion from 8 to 16 teams is somewhat disingenuous, given that that shift was required because of the political turmoil in Europe where old Soviet and Yugoslav republics were regaining independence (along with the Czechoslovakia split) and UEFA membership rose from about 30 in 1990 to about 50 in 1992, so it almost doubled, so it was to be expected that the final tournament should be doubled too. But UEFA membership has been relatively steady in the past 15 years (Montenegro joined in 2006, Kazakhstan moved from Asia a year or two before that, and a couple of small countries also joined, but nothing major), so another increase on that basis hardly seems warranted.
The other Platini argument - the Championships could support extra 8 teams because there is enough quality in Europe for that - also misses the point. Just because there's a lot of teams that can play at that level, doesn't mean they all should. That's what qualifying's there for and that's why we so many people pay attention to it. Hell, you could probably put 22 European and 10 South American teams in the World Cup, and they could all play at that level, but that's not the point. These Championships are for the best oout of many who are very good, and that shouldn't change as far as I'm concerned. EURO 2008 was a brilliant tournament, not one thing was wrong with it.
The cynic in me thinks that this is a ploy to ensure all the big nations get in, since qualifying for major tournaments from Europe isn't easy for anyone these days, given the overall quality of European teams (not having a dig here at England, Italy and Spain for example failed to qualify in 1992). But I think this will ruin the qualification process which could become meaningless, and I think that would do no-one any good.

24 ia about the whole of Europe isnt it?

I think they will be having co-hosts going forward though - but 16 seems to work.

Well, Poland was probably the worst side at the Championships, and Ukraine didn't even qualify, so not too sure about that...

I agree with most of what El G has posted. 16 out of 53 is a good ratio - 30%. (As a comparison, the World Cup does 32 out of 209 - 15%)

20 teams would be good...4 groups of 5 teams!!!

It has already happened. What about the Euro2000 qualifiers?

In qualifying yes it has...but not at the finals itself!!!

Please don't remind me of that. Although to be honest, if we hadn't bottled it against Ireland at Lansdowne Road early on in the campaign we would have got there.
EURO 2000 was a fantastic tournament too, some great games, the Spain v. Yugoslavia/Serbia was one of the best and most exciting games I've ever seen.

20 would be the ideal amount I think, I believe that by 2018 the world cup should take on an expansion aswell

No, no point going higher than 32. Too difficult to organise, with little actual need for it.
But maybe re-jiggle the number of teams each confederation sends to the World Cup.

i'd like to see more teams there

Don't think the quality would drop - think of the teams that missed out this year:

England
Bulgaria
Ukraine
Denmark
Norway
Scotland
Ireland
Serbia
Slovakia
Bosnia
Slovenia

to name a few. All these countries can play at that level. The problem I have with the expansion is that it would mean that practically half the teams in Europe make. Why bother with a long qualifying process then? And if you take that process out, much of the fun of the EURO is gone. You want the teams to earn the right to be there, see who crumbles under pressure and doesn't make it. Makes it much more interesting than allowing half of Europe in.

My problem is with the tournament structure. 16 and 32 team tournaments generate the ideal format. With a 24 team format, you have to start messing around with a second round group phase (as in 1982 WC) or allowing third placed teams into the second round (86, 90, 94). I can't see UEFA increasing the number of teams per first round group.

Yeah, that's problematic too. World Cups 1986-1994 were a nightmare to organise for 2nd round matches with having to figure out which 4 3rd placed teams go through and who they get to play....

It wasn't the figuring it out that I objected to - after all, we have more complexity with using head-to-head results (especially in the Euro08 qualifers being *iteratively* h-t-h for the first time) and second-place rankings that only use results against 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th... it makes my spreadsheets invaluable!

Fixed.

In other words, Italy (at least in 1994, when the cnuts made the final after being 3rd in their group).

I don't mind the re-engineering HN... my sheets are scaleable and parameterised. I can make such changes pretty quickly and it keeps my sheets ahead of what competition there is

It's official. UEFA released the decision on Friday that it will be 24 teams from the 2016 tournament http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=64/newsid=754190.html

Bad move IMO.

Definitely the 'England' effect. 

I wasn't going to rise to it Tigers. Just the usual predictable blx in an attempt to wind up. Yawn.

BTW, you'll be pleased to know the prediction engine now thinks you'll stay up. With reasonable comfort too.