I have re-drawn the finals tournament as a 24-team event, just like M. Platini wants it.
I've used the real qualifying results, and made the presumption that 22 teams made it through the qualifiers to join Poland and Ukraine as hosts.
The 22 qualifiers were therefore all group winners and runners-up, plus the four best-placed third placed teams from a table based on results against teams placed 1st to 5th in each group (the equivalent of the one they actually used to rank second placed teams). Humourously, this had the wholly unintended outcome of Scotland only missing out to Armenia and Switzerland on goal difference.
Then, I put the teams into 4 seeded pots according to their UEFA coefficeints (Holland, Spain, Germany and Italy joined Poland and Ukraine in pot 1), before conducting a draw (I didn't have those unscrewy ball things, uinfortunately, so I had to use scraps of paper).
The draw:
Group A - Poland, Sweden, Ireland, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Group B - Spain, Russia, Turkey, Estonia
Group C - Holland, England, France, Hungary
Group D - Ukraine, Greece, Czech Rep., Norway
Group E - Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Montenegro
Group F - Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Armenia
Overall, would you be more or less interested in that, than the 16-team event we actually have? It's the future - this is precisely the kind of Euros we'll have in 2016.
I honestly can't imagine speeding home from work to watch Switzerland against Armenia, Denmark against Montenegro, or Turkey against Estonia. Even Ireland v Bosnia would be a "take a paper to the pub" game, frankly, unless Ireland needed a win to go through to the last 16.
I've used the real qualifying results, and made the presumption that 22 teams made it through the qualifiers to join Poland and Ukraine as hosts.
The 22 qualifiers were therefore all group winners and runners-up, plus the four best-placed third placed teams from a table based on results against teams placed 1st to 5th in each group (the equivalent of the one they actually used to rank second placed teams). Humourously, this had the wholly unintended outcome of Scotland only missing out to Armenia and Switzerland on goal difference.
Then, I put the teams into 4 seeded pots according to their UEFA coefficeints (Holland, Spain, Germany and Italy joined Poland and Ukraine in pot 1), before conducting a draw (I didn't have those unscrewy ball things, uinfortunately, so I had to use scraps of paper).
The draw:
Group A - Poland, Sweden, Ireland, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Group B - Spain, Russia, Turkey, Estonia
Group C - Holland, England, France, Hungary
Group D - Ukraine, Greece, Czech Rep., Norway
Group E - Italy, Denmark, Portugal, Montenegro
Group F - Germany, Croatia, Switzerland, Armenia
Overall, would you be more or less interested in that, than the 16-team event we actually have? It's the future - this is precisely the kind of Euros we'll have in 2016.
I honestly can't imagine speeding home from work to watch Switzerland against Armenia, Denmark against Montenegro, or Turkey against Estonia. Even Ireland v Bosnia would be a "take a paper to the pub" game, frankly, unless Ireland needed a win to go through to the last 16.
Comment