In eight years' time, the European Championships will be a 24-team event.
The new format was first suggested by the Scottish FA and has now been accepted by all members of UEFA.
They all agreed the new competition will affect neither revenue nor the competitiveness of the original competition. It is also believed that the new format will actually make qualifying for the event more competitive.
Not all of the teams at Euro 2008 are within the top 24 of the UEFA section of the FIFA world rankings. The UEFA rankings make for interesting reading.
How are Greece still sixth and England still seventh in the UEFA rankings? I'm not quite sure! Greece were terrible at Euro 2008; England didn't even make it!
I'm sure England could squeeze into Euro 2016, though.
Funnily enough, four teams in the top 16 of Europe did not make it ti this year's glamour event. England, Scotland, Bulgaria and Israel are all in the top 15 and would, I think, have faired better than Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the shockingly ranked Austrians (43rd behind Albania and Cyprus)!
I would repeat my call for just one country to qualify per dual-hosted event but that won't be a problem in 2016 and we don't even know who'll be the host in four years time!
So 24 teams should see my beloved Scotland qualify! After all, we didn't come up with the idea for nothing!
14 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete