Euro Championships Expand By 2016: Scotland Says, "We Are Doing It For Everyone"

The UEFA Eurpoean Championships are set to expand to 24 teams by the year 2016. This move, which will be officially put into play when UEFA meets on 26 September, will likely see the addition of two groups during the actual competition.The interesting thing to note is who spearheaded the move.

The Scottish Football Association and the Football Association of Ireland called for the expansion last year. Their logic is that they wish to incorporate more of the teams from former Soviet countries. Why now though?

The Scottish FA cheif, Gordon Smith, said that he realizes that this opens up the chance for Ireland and Scottland to qualify easier. However, he also points out that this gives other Home Nations a chance to qualify, but that the call for expansion did not circulate around qualifying.

However, from having a look at both sponsors qualifying history, it seems a bit strange that they would want to do this for anyone other than themselves. I can remember being in my British history class during early qualifying and my friend Jesse was commenting that this might be the year that both Scotland and Ireland are in the Euro's.

It was however, not meant to be. Both teams started out strong in early qualifying and ended up not making it due one or two bad games.

This seems like it's self motivated more than anything. For two teams that have been on the very verge of qualification for sometime now, it is only fathomable that they would want to expand the number of qualifiers to favor themselves.

To say that they are doing this to increase the chance that England will also have a better shot at qualifying also seems a bit suspect. In the tournaments history, England have faild at their qualification campaigns five times out of 16. The records for Ireland and Scotland not qualifying are more than double that.

Should the Euro's be expanded? I'm iffy on the subject. I think if it will truly open up the door for smaller countries to have a shot at the world stage, then sure, expand them. However, I see this as nothing more than a self motivated ploy by the Scottish and Iris FA's to see their names on the scoreboards in 2016.