“This UEFA decision was spot on”: It is a sentence that is rarely heard among football fans. The decisions of the European Football Union are usually viewed critically by lovers of the sport. September 26, 2008 was no exception.
On that day, UEFA decided to expand the European Championship by a whopping 50 percent. The Euro was to be expanded from 16 nations to 24 participating countries. At first there was a lot of grumbling about the tournament being watered down and fears of a drop in quality. And the premiere in 2016 was actually difficult to bear in terms of football.
UEFA is spot on with its European Championship decision
But within eight years, a spectacular turnaround followed! The 2024 European Championship has already been a true football festival in its first two weeks, and not only in terms of sport. Crowds of fans from all countries are enthusiastic about Germany – and, apart from the performance of Deutsche Bahn, which is not worthy of the European Championship, they are enthusiastic about Germany.
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In terms of sport, the European Championship has already offered many memorable games, in which the underdogs, who probably would not have made it into the field of participants in the 16-team version, provided the positive surprises.
England, Belgium, France and Italy have not achieved much in their three previous European Championship appearances. Georgia, Romania and Slovenia, on the other hand, have gained a lot of sympathy points with their courageous performances. In the long run, the expansion decided 16 years ago has therefore paid off in full.
But a serious problem also became apparent around the last match day: the format in which four third-placed teams advance in groups leads to too much calculation and uncertainty, and in many groups the teams are paralyzed by speculation about the results. And this stands in the way of the hoped-for full-throttle finals.
UEFA will have to come up with something for the next editions, but the solution is at least obvious: expanding the European Championship to 32 countries, which will then fight in eight groups of four in the tried and tested World Cup format for two places in the round of 16 each.
No quality concerns to be feared with renewed EM expansion
Because the much-quoted small teams have made great strides in recent years and have also caught up structurally, concerns about quality would be unfounded. The Norwegians around Erling Haaland (23), Sweden, Greece, Bosnia, Wales or Iceland would definitely not have harmed the Euro in terms of quality.
Curious and fast
The (curious) records and statistics of the European Championship 2024
Especially since the outsiders have exceeded their own expectations at the European Championships, such as the Georgians, who were disappointing in qualifying with only eight points. They only managed to get into the field of participants via the detour of the playoffs thanks to the Nations League.
It is now UEFA’s turn to react to the impressions from Germany. Opinions from prominent observers, such as European champion Andreas Möller, already suggest that many would immediately celebrate a further expansion of the European Championship as “spot on”.
For the critically viewed association, this presents an almost historically easy opportunity to make a winning decision right from the start.
2024-06-27 15:22:07
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