Historically speaking, the number of teams playing in the European Championship, which is now recognised as the EUROS, has always kept on progressively expanding. The very first edition of the Euros, which took place in France in the year 1960, had only 4 teams out of the initial 17, competing in the Finals. In the 5th edition of Euros, in 1976, for the last time ever, the continental competition hosted 4 teams in the Finals. Moving forward, 8 teams participated in the Final stages of the Euros.
Again after 5 editions of the European Championship, 16 teams played in the finals of the 1996 Euros which were hosted by England, where for the first time, the nomenclature, “Euros” was used to define the tournament. Then before the Euros commenced in 2016, UEFA decided to upgrade the format to include a total of 24 teams to play the Finals. This is the way the Euros is played even today. But there needs to be a change to the “flawed” format.
The Problem
The biggest issue with this 24-team format is the basis of which teams qualify for the Round of 16 after the group stages. With 2 teams from each group (6 groups in total) qualifying, that makes a total of 12 countries in the round of 16. Now what about the other 4 teams you might think? Well, the 4 best 3rd-place teams qualify for the Round of 16 alongside the other 12 top two teams. This presents an opportunity for some undeserved teams who should probably not have the chance of qualifying to play Euros knockout football over other deserved competitors. This format has made the Euro group stage notably less thrilling. Historically, teams could often qualify with just three points and a modest goal difference of minus one, making early matches tense and competitive. Teams have started playing for a draw and taking lesser risk, to qualify rather than playing for a win and keeping the spirit of football alive. The best example of such would be Group C of Euros 2024, where every match became somewhat of a snoozefest with Denmark and Slovenia drawing all of their matches and still both qualifying along with England.
The Solution
There are two potential solutions to address this issue. One option is to revert to having 16 teams, which would mean fewer games and lesser revenue for UEFA. Which we all know, UEFA would be definitely opposed to. However, this is unlikely to be implemented. Alternatively, expanding to 32 teams in the style of the original World Cup format could be considered. Critics argue that this might lower the overall quality of play. But let’s be honest, all it would really mean is to have more and more underdog stories. And who wouldn’t like those? Teams like Norway, Ireland, Bosnia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Wales, and Greece would all have an opportunity to play in the Euros. This would surely add to the prestige of the tournament more than taking anything away from it. With the next 2028 Euros in mind, UEFA should and in a way must upgrade their 24-team format to a 32-team format.
