With the EURO tournament, what has always amazed me is that there is no 3rd/4th place game and honestly wouldn't it make sense to have a 3rd place game to determine who finishes either 3rd or 4th in a EURO
The 3rd place play-off is viewed as a glorified friendly. An extra, pointless game simply to squeeze a bit more money out of fans. Besides plenty of other cup competitions don't have it (this 3rd place nonsense would be even more lucrative in the CL).
Well they have 3rd place games all the time in the FIFA World Cup and I'm sure they have it in the African Cup of Nations, Asian Cup and Copa America but they should for competitions like Gold Cup and EURO
UEFA tends to have a lower tolerance for nonsense. I believe the Euros used to have a third-place playoff, but they got rid of it after Euro 1980.
The Third Place playoff at Euro 80 was decided on penalties but did not have extra-time so even then UEFA didn't seem to take the match too seriously. But I've often wondered... France was due to host Euro 84, and at the '82 World Cup France lost the semi-final and played the Third Place playoff with mostly the reserve players who didn't receive much action during the tournament. Did this help influence in any way UEFA's decision to abandon the Consolation match? (France treated the match the same way at the '86 World Cup)
I never watch 3rd place games, even in the WC. Both teams by definition have already been eliminated from the competition and are just waiting to go home.
Don't mind keeping third place games in tournaments which already have like the WC, but they're not particularly meaningful - If you're a favorite that had hopes of making the final third place is a Mickey Mouse trophy, and if you're an underdog team, you've already made a semifinal and your tourney won't really be tarnished if you finish fourth instead of third. It can be a good way to end a tourney on a positive note for a team that has done well to make the semis and isn't horribly disappointed about not making the final, but that's about it.
I would like to see the Euros have a third place game, but there being a rule that only u25 players can play. Would be good to let the kids play under less pressure to showcase their talents.
And the losing semifinalists in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_squads#Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_squads#Wales
i would not sign that. almost every International teams competition has a 3rd place match. it is in fact only the Euros that don't have one but only since 1984. They had it before.
I remember when USA had a shocking Quarterfinal loss in the Men's Basketball World Championship, and they finished sixth. They played classification games to rank all sixteen teams.
The 1980 Euros suffered from low attendance figures and viewership interest. Whole swaths of stadia were empty for these games. There was the hooliganism problem which disrupted the England-Belgium and only further discouraged interest to attend. Many of the matches were not carried live by broadcasters. In fact, English broadcasters only aired highlights of the third-place game. As a response, UEFA changed the format in the hope it would generate more interest. They eliminated the third-place match contested by the group runner-ups and reintroduced the semi-finals in its place.