We should wait and see. I follow often UEFA qualifications. Europe always has 1,2 good teams in every group, others mostly know what can they expect. In qualifications for World Cup 2014, Europe has 9 groups. In my opinion only 5 groups can offer good-interesting matches. Other 4 groups mostly have similar value, type of strength, expectations are much lower. Some national teams don't even have too much of their own fans, when they play at home, 700, 800 people come. I don't think that it's fair to see Spain and France in the same group and in some other groups we don't see derby match at all. Allthough it's interesting to see those matches between France and Spain. Their opponents are much weaker (Georgia, Belarus and Finland). On the last EURO 2012, I could say that 5 teams didn't offer quality, 11 teams played good-great. If we add another 8 teams, we could see maybe 10 teams who could have problems with creativity. World Cup's have 32 teams and they can also offer "sleepy" moments. I could say that we had 14 teams that had problems with creativity and quality on World Cup 2010. UEFA had 13 national teams on last World Cup, 6 of them had problems. People expected much more from European teams. 3 of those 6 teams weren't at EURO 2012. That's why I consider that 24 format is not so good. Imagine that we see 2 very boring groups. I would implement only 3rd place match. I am sure that Portugal and Germany would offer interesting football in this match on EURO 2012. Qualifications for EURO's and World Cup's in Europe would be more interesting with 2 group stages in qualifications. In 1st group stage we could have weaker teams and best teams from this group stage would join with best European teams: Spain, France, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, etc. African qualifications have something similar I think, maybe Asia and Central America. This 24 format is just because of financial interests, better contracts, sponsors would pay much more, much more countries would have higher TV rights prices, more tickets, expensive commercials. People mostly agree with the fact that we had one boring group on the last EURO 2012. 16 format is bringing much more quality, teams are much more motivated in their groups and UEFA could keep special status of quality.
Great post Despise the direction Platini has taken UEFA, complete poor decision for "renovating" the Euro Should be kept to 16 teams. The tournament will lose a lot of allure, competitiveness, and quality of games.
I like the expansion to 24 teams since it creates an extra knock out round. Let's face it tournaments don't get interesting until the knock out phase. I don't think adding 8 teams will water down the competition as I think in Europe theres not that much of a difference between n12-24 Is Greece that much better than Serbia? I dont think so.
I agree. Also I think this helps in distributing power and makes less likely the chance of a Group of Death like we saw in 2008 (Italy, France, Holland, Romania) or in Poland/Ukraine (Holland, Germany, Portgual, Denmark). High quality teams can be seeded in groups much easier so we can see better knock out stages.
I think that they want to protect bigger teams, so that they have easier road in their group stage matches, they lost Netherlands in the group stage. They also lost France at EURO 2008, Germany, Italy and Spain at EURO 2004. Group with France, Armenia, Lithuania and Iceland would sound much better, these matches would attract much more people and bigger teams would had difficult job in their group matches. I like to watch "group of death" or stronger matches. EURO 2004: Portugal and Spain France, England and Croatia (referee didn't see Trezeguet's obvious hand against Croatia, it finished 2-2). Sweden, Denmark, Italy Czech Republic, Netherlands, Germany EURO 2008: Portugal, Turkey, Czech Republic Croatia, Germany Netherlands, Italy, France, Romania Spain, Sweden EURO 2012: Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark Spain, Italy, Croatia England, France, Sweden As you can see, those strong matches are vanishing, if we compare last three EURO's. We will have six groups, carriers will be for sure: Spain, Germany, Italy. Others will fight for other three places: Portugal, France, England, Netherlands, Croatia, maybe Russia. If we observe EURO 2012 qualifying competition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012_qualifying We wouldn't have always interesting additional qualifications. Some weaker teams would enter at EURO with 24 places. There are not too many surprises in qualifications, maybe if we have really strong groups, with 3,4 almost equal teams with attractive style, it would be nice to see them at EURO, but those defensive teams, 7-3-0 formations, which don't have higger intentions to score, I wouldn't like to see them at EURO. Those great teams that get their third place at EURO's, it's not bad at all, they should prepare themselves much better. With 24 places, we will see 6 easy points for better teams and calculations in that last match. I would like to see only 3rd place match. I would return World Cup's with 24 teams, in USA 1994 we had this format, it was nice and interesting, with plenty of good teams. Now we don't have plenty of good teams, 6,7 European teams, 5 Southamerican teams, 1 African team. That's around 14,15 good teams and we have 32 places. I don't like that promotional idea around the world and those words: everyone can play football now. It's not true, we see often anti-football, defensive teams, World Cup in South Africa was worse World Cup that I remember, the qualitiy was much weaker. After USA 1994 and that enlargment we don't see those fruits of high improvement. World Cup 1998 was the last great World Cup and World Cup 2006 was better than World Cup 2002 and much better than 2010. In Japan and Korea 2002 we saw several strange matches. Asian football is still not developed, they have too many places, from Africa we have two teams now (Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire). We had Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal who were good before. South Africa, Togo, Angola and Egypt are not developing. Africa has too many places, it would be better to see only 2,3 African teams, 2,3 Asian teams and give 3,4 places for Southamerican teams so that they can have 7,8 places. USA, Mexico, 9 Southamerican teams, 15 European, 3 African and 3 Asian teams. Imagine this World Cup: USA, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, maybe Venezuela and Peru, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, maybe Cameroon, Portugal, Spain, France, England, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Japan, South Korea and Australia. This World Cup would be much more interesting for viewers. Other teams would be motivated and they would try to win their continental opponents, now we have weaker quality and calculations. Munchen wants to be one of the candidates at EURO 2020.
In some ways I like Groups of Death. But in the Euros I want to see more evenly distributed Groups. Euro 2008 Groups were a joke for instance. Two of Holland, Italy or France should have been seeded. Not the Home teams Austria and Switzerland.
Greece is a hard opponent, it's not easy against them, they won against interesting Russia at EURO 2012, they won against Croatia in qualifications for EURO 2012 at home, they also took one point in Croatia. Argentina scored their first goal against Greece in 77th minute at World Cup 2010. They don't play attractive, but we don't see easy victories against Greece. They have great chances to qualify for World Cup 2014, good opponents, with their style they will win this group for sure. Greece is becoming regular participant no matter what we think about their style. At EURO 2012 they started to play openly in some segments and they really had nice ideas.
2 Thoughts Dropping the single or co-host setup is unfortunate. I felt many countries, Poland included used it not only as a financial and infrastructural jolt but also outsider opinion (Tourism). For many visitors it was their first time in not only Poland but Eastern European (I know Poland is now Central). It was truly a historic time for Poland. And now it seems, such historic events will no longer occur. One must assume the host cities will for the most part be major metropolis cities. One could argue this makes the Tournament more accessible for the common fan but I will miss one single culture putting the Tournament on it's back for a month. And visiting fans being completely engulfed in the culture. Now to the expansion of teams. On one hand, the quality of play in the Euro Tournament is only 2nd to Champions League. Adding 8 extra teams will certainty decline that quality. Four teams I think the Tourney can handle and even welcome but 8 is pretty staggering. 8 extra teams Country - World Ranking Switzerland #14 Belgium #20 Denmark #22 Bosnia #24 Norway #27 Montenegro #29 Romania #31 Hungary #33 I think adding 8 teams will level out in 10-15 years but I think it's foolish thinking adding lower quality teams won't water down the play. Not to continue harping on Greece but imagine 4 extra Greece's in last summers Euro Tournament. Really makes you think huh? Just to be specific. Let's take a look back at Euro 2012 Qualifying As we know. Portugal, Croatia, Ireland & Czech qualified. So the additional 8 teams in Euro 2012 would have been 1. Bosnia and Herzegovina 2. Estonia 3. Montenegro 4. Turkey 5. Hungary 6. Norway 7. Israel 8. Armenia Expansion does mean that more Favorites or Talented rosters will make it farther in the Tournament because there will be more 3rd Place teams moving forward. True this does mean it is less likely a Greece 2004 is repeated. But it will also make the Group Stage much less worthwhile and for many Top Nations....pointless.
Clean sea and coast could be interesting criteria for future hosts: http://ec.europa.eu/news/environment/120730_en.htm
Istanbul loses out to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games. (Congratulations to Tokyo! ) So, any chance that UEFA will go back on their decision of a continent-wide tournament and allow Turkey the possibility of hosting the 2020 Euros?
Obviously hooliganism isn't a major factor in the decision making if Poland, Ukraine and Russia are hosting major tournaments during the 2010s. But England hosted in 1996, so not too long ago. If I was UEFA I'd give Turkey the semis and final in 2020 as well as hosting one of the groups (Turkey's group, if they qualify).
I think the direct opposite. The group stage is often the most interesting part of the tournament, with nervous giants taking on enthusiastic (comparative) minnows. The knock-out phase is often riddled with negative football, with teams settling for penalties. The expansion to 24, with the best four 3rd place teams, will also encourage negativity in the group phase. The format used in 1982 was probably the most interesting format for 24 teams, but I can see why many found it less than ideal. That I agree with. I'd just rather see a 32 team Euro than a 24 team one, because the format is so poor.
Germany, 1954, 1974, and 1990 were won three World Cup. After the performance of the World Cup matches so far, both the overall co-ordination, or the means of attack, Germany's performance is the best. Goalkeeper Neuer, Lahm captain leading the defense strong enough; midfielder Ozil, Muller, Schweinsteiger perfect combination of technology highlights, hardness is strong enough; Crowe forward line World Cup players Ze is risen indeed, with Podolski, Gomez et al supplement, there is enough offensive power. German lies in their strong team spirit - Germany never admit defeat the spirit. Although each location is not the strongest, but all positions together, any opponent is immune to his right. They use the world as a whole, the world's first fight, the world's attitude to effectively compensate for his far from the world's first technology, tactics and other aspects of coaching skill gaps.
Good on Turkey for refusing the semis and finals. They should've given the whole thing to Turkey, they've built a lot of new stadiums and are still doing so. I hope this new format fails terribly (which it probably will because I don't see how the players will like traveling all over the freaking continent in a short amount of time).
It's not the "new format", it's just a one-off tournament to celebrate the 60th birthday of the EURO. In 2024 it will be back to one (or possibly two) host again.
Settle down. Besides "travelling all over the continent" is what, like two hour flights? I think the players will be ok with that.
You must've missed the two posts above you. Lusankya has already calmed me down, so you don't have to worry about that. A two hour flight is still a two hour flight. I'm sure that the players would prefer not having to make those flights multiple times during an important tournament. But then again you may be right, perhaps they wouldn't mind it at all. We'll just have to see what the players think about it after the tournament starts.