UEFA to Expand Euros to 24 Teams and Stick with Polkraine for 2012

September 24th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

UEFA’s executive committee gathers in a conference room (not pictured) tomorrow and some big decisions will get made. Advance word is that the following will be decreed:

1) The official UEFA vendetta against Arsene Wenger will be rubberstamped. President Michel Platini to take the lead on this one.

2) An official report will criticize the Euro 2010 progress in Poland and Ukraine. But they won’t pull the plug on Polkraine 2012. So that should be useful.

3) Expansion of Euros from 16 to 24 teams to be confirmed.

“The expansion will happen,” the UEFA official said. “This will give teams a better chance to qualify, the fans more matches and we are confident the quality will only increase.”

We’ve already had a vote on whether this is a good idea or not, and it seems most were in favour of sticking with just 16 teams.

But looks like it’s going to happen from 2016 onwards, so clearly no one at UEFA reads World Cup Blog, though someone at FIFA obviously does.

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James

The first stages were incredible dull boring matches, and they decide to add more? Looks like someone is looking after their wallet instead of interests of football, again. :(
http://france.theoffside.com Sam

FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! there’s absolutely no need for that shit! stick with 16 teams! twenty four is almost half of the confederation, plus with 24 we’ll have to deal with the awkward qualifying format.
Andrew

The reason the group stages are so dull is because of the host nations. Austria and Switzerland were awful in Euro 2008, but qualified as hosts. on top of that France and Greece didnt show up at all. Basically 1/4 of the teams were below the level of competition.

If they were to have had 24 teams in the last euro, and they were based on group points. If the 3rd place teams were taken, Serbia, Scotland, Norway, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Bulgaria would have been in with probably Israel rounding out 24.

I think this would have been much more competitive because even though there are a few cup cakes in those additional 8 they would all come out to play and the liks of Serbia, Scotland and Norway maybe could have shaken things up.
James

@Andrew

Actually, the host countries put up more of a fight than Italy and France. No way was France vs Romania the least bit interesting. The commentators themselves were bored and decided to do coke lines with Mutu!
Andrew

I wonder where country Polkraine is ? Maybe you, Daryl, should ask somebody to check your writings before publishing it… Oh sorry, it’s “blogging”, i guess it means “I can’t care less what i write, cause i don’t – i blog”….
Ryan

Lol at Andrew, ever heard of Benelux?
http://www.nevercaptainnickybutt.blogspot.com Ibracadabra

From a selfish (Israeli) point of view only.. I’d love to see the field expand to 24. Otherwise, being rational, it really doesn’t make much sense. There are about 8 European superpowers and the other 8 fill out the draw and vary in competitiveness tournament to tournament, 24 is just too much… but maybe Benayoun and Ben Sahar would disagree…
http://france.theoffside.com Sam

LOL @ Andrew for getting owned.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com Mike

This is a financially driven incredibly bad decision all around.
http://startingeleven.blogspot.com/2008/09/jack-chloe-and-24-teams-in-euro.html
James

they should have hosted it in Turkey :D
deinas

great!!!!!lithuania chance to make it into finals :)

lithuania