When the euro's expand to 24?

[BonnieShels]

Dembele?

[irishultra]

Belgium knocked it around nicely against England but didn't have any killer instinct. They have a raw Lukaku and then decent strikers likes of Kevin Meireles and Jan Voiselle(sp?) but neither are fitting of the rest of the teams potential.

A 24 team Euros will be for the best, its more football, if you don't like whose playing, don't watch.

[legendz]

More football is good, the ease to get to the knock-out stage is the concern.


The 4 third place teams this year definitely would not be out of place in the latter stages. They'd possibly be the top 2 across six groups. Whether 8 teams and a round of 16 knock-out stage will be as interesting as euro's '08 & '12, we'll have to wait and see, I won't discount it.


While I'd have preferred 20, I can see why the preference is the 24 they've gone with.


With the competition every 4 years, only so many world cup spots and no other competitions, it's not a bad move to have more countries involved.

[SkStu]

It's hard to really come down too strongly on either side of the expansion... The selfish part of me looks forward to somewhat more regular qualification but the other side says that it's the premier international football (even sporting) competition in the world and expanding it to 24 will dilute the quality a lot.

Selfishness wins. Just.

[CraftyToePoke]

I think this tournament, from the off has been compelling, a solitary mistake, one bad half of football and you can be as good as home. (Just ask Ireland). The quality, the style of play, the ease of possession, the standard. I have loved every minute. (Except those provided by Ireland) I wouldn't change it. We will from now on have to wait for it to get going, like a world cup, almost, waiting for the group stages to be out of the way with little interest in the other groups as by and large they will follow ranking and seeding.

Still, we will get there more often and ship less hidings when we do, so the inquests into everything that is wrong with us will have less profile also, not because we will be any better, we just wont be so ruthlessly exposed, as often, before getting on our flight home.

[SkStu]

I also see that part of it CTP but I think we are entering a dark period for international football over the next 5-10 years which will require overhaul of the game. We may qualify for a EC or two in the short term but it's delaying the inevitable. We're about to crash and burn. Our reliance on britland to do our job for us is about to bite us hard.

[Charlie Darwin]

Can someone fix the apostrophe infraction in the thread title before I literally start bawling?

I also see that part of it CTP but I think we are entering a dark period for international football over the next 5-10 years which will require overhaul of the game. We may qualify for a EC or two in the short term but it's delaying the inevitable. We're about to crash and burn. Our reliance on britland to do our job for us is about to bite us hard.

We're getting worse but Europe is getting better. We're more hoping for great players to emerge now than expecting.

[BonnieShels]

Agree with Stu with his selfish argument. Another thing that'll be great is the lack of fallow days. I dunno about you but I've been like a spare bollock on the days that there's been no games.

[SkStu]

We're getting worse but Europe is getting better. We're more hoping for great players to emerge now than expecting.

Exactly. And our definition of "great" has changed majorly (in the wrong way) since our heyday in the 80's and 90's. Our last truly great player was Roy Keane.

[legendz]

UEFA secretary general Gianni Infantino raised concerns about UEFA’s plan to expand Euro 2016 from 16 to 24 teams – a decision approved by all 53 member nations.


"It is 24 teams and that is a problem,'' he said. "If it turns out it is boring because everyone qualifies, we will change the qualifying format for the next time [Euro 2020].''


On a positive note about the 2016 tournament in France, Infantino revealed that all rights to the championships qualifying matches would be sold centrally through UEFA.


He added “You only have to look at the European club competitions to see the benefits of a competition being centrally managed.”


“What has happened in the past is that the national associations agree on when they should play each other, kick-off times, home and away, etc. This will now be centrally managed by UEFA.”


This ‘Week of Football’ means transmission of matches will be available to fans on a pan-European basis.


From 2014 some teams will play Thursday/Sunday, others Friday/Monday, and others Saturday/Tuesday in “a 6 day weekend”.


Infantino continued: “National team football still draws the highest TV audience but it needs a boost – which is why we are launching this project. We have some excellent agreements now with the clubs and the key has been to find the right balance between national team football and club football.”

The week of football for qualification should be interesting, getting to watch more international football form around Europe regularly. The ease of qualifying for 2016 could be a problem though with qualification being easier. Interesting to hear the format could change for 2020 if it's boring, possibly go with 20 for 2020?!!