Loading ...Jun 28 2008
Euro Expansion to be Decided in September
Does anybody think UEFA expanding the European Championships from 16 teams is a good idea?
Apparently, somebody does, because it’s up for consideration, with a final decision to be made in September. The obvious motivation here is more games, which leads to more money and greater exposure. The problem is that football’s main obstacle to exposure is not quantity of games; rather, it’s convincing those few places in the world where football is not accepted that the game is a quality product.
People in the United States aren’t skipping Euro 2008 because England isn’t in it. They’re skipping it because they don’t think much of football.
So to convince me on this argument, you’ll have to convince me that there are four or eight more teams who did not qualify who, when added to the pool of qualifying teams, would make the competition better. I’m open to the idea. Making each group five teams instead of four could be a good thing.
Adding eight teams and going to six, four team groups seems too much. They would have to start playing games at the same time during the first two matches of group play or else have the tournament go on for too long. There would be another round in the knockout phase. And frankly, there aren’t eight more teams that the world is interest in seeing play.
There is the thought that the current length is perfect. I’m not saying that thought is right. I just subscribe to it. There’s also the fact that these player’s schedules are getting tighter and tighter, and adding an extra week to the tournament is a bigger deal than it may otherwise seem.
If England, Scotland, Bulgaria, and Israel where in the tournament, is it really going to be that much better?
Links
UEFA to decide in September on Euro Expansion
European Championships set to increase to 24 teams for 2016
WFP Related Posts
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