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Euro 2020

Nothing in particular wrong with the format as it is, but football has grown immensely (particularly financially) over the last 20 years by not just standing still and being happy with the status quo. You might not be happy with that development, but that's more a question of motivation than application.

If the biggest teams do get 2 home games a lot of fans will be able to take 10 days off work and follow their team in their own capital. And again, if the flights are relatively short then trains will be an alternative to flights as well. The trips won't be that much longer than the travels internally in single countries hosting events.



I'm assuming UEFA are doing this to increase the interest and thus the audience and income from these tournaments. I don't think giving several teams home advantage to thus get more big teams through the group stages is part of it though. Coincidences happen. Quite frequently.

If this was some part of an overall money making scheme for UEFA why then allow Polan and Ukraine to co-host, or Switzerland and Austria?

I'm generally less than convinced by conspiracy theories though.

I still don't see how having the tournament in multiple cities is meant to grow the game. The tournament isn't going to grow stagnant and become less popular if it stays the way it is. I'm all for debating this topic, but I'm yet to be convinced by anyone as to why this is a good move by UEFA.

One more point, there has been talk about expanding the tournament i.e. more teams, what do you think of those proposals? I think it's perfect the way it is personally.

Also, if UEFA and FIFA want to be innovative and improve the game further, why don't they introduce goal technology for example? Because THAT would definitely improve football rather than tinkering with an already well run and successful international tournament.
 
I'm assuming UEFA are doing this to increase the interest and thus the audience and income from these tournaments. I don't think giving several teams home advantage to thus get more big teams through the group stages is part of it though. Coincidences happen. Quite frequently.

If this was some part of an overall money making scheme for UEFA why then allow Polan and Ukraine to co-host, or Switzerland and Austria?

I'm generally less than convinced by conspiracy theories though.

But UEFA are ditching the Poland/Ukraine and Switzerland/Austria format. They are abandoning the policy you use to support their fair mindedness. So to rephrase your statement, if this was not some part of an overall money making scheme for UEFA why stop tournaments like Poland and Ukraine or Switzerland and Austria as co-hosts?

I don't know the UEFA motivation for these changes. However, I can see similarities between this and the CL changes. The changed format favours the big countries and big clubs, while a sop is thrown to the smaller countries in the form of a few CL group spots or Euro cities,
 
I still don't see how having the tournament in multiple cities is meant to grow the game. The tournament isn't going to grow stagnant and become less popular if it stays the way it is. I'm all for debating this topic, but I'm yet to be convinced by anyone as to why this is a good move by UEFA.

One more point, there has been talk about expanding the tournament i.e. more teams, what do you think of those proposals? I think it's perfect the way it is personally.

Also, if UEFA and FIFA want to be innovative and improve the game further, why don't they introduce goal technology for example? Because THAT would definitely improve football rather than tinkering with an already well run and successful international tournament.

I don't know of course, but I'm assuming that UEFA aren't doing this for no reason.

I suppose the best argument I've heard for this is that it won't put the financial burden on one (or two countries) to host the thing, quite expensive and for smaller countries you can be left with stadiums with very limited uses afterwards. I also think that this could increase the interest in some of the early group games that haven't always had a ton of interest around them, especially of course for the home games already mentioned, but teams and countries only getting a smaller number of games might increase the interest in those games.

How it actually works out in terms of popularity there's really only one way to know and that's to try it. I assume UEFA have people much smarter than me and almost infinitely more knowledgeable on the topic that have put some thought into this.

I think the decision (I think it's beyond proposal?) to expand the tournament was inevitable. Perhaps a bit premature at this point, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Personally I would have preferred keeping it at 16 teams at least for a while longer as I think the increased competitiveness was good, but with the number of fairly good fairly high profile teams not getting in I think long term it's a pretty good idea. We're seeing quite a few of the younger eastern European countries produce some fairly strong teams now and I think most of the 24 teams will be at least fairly competitive in not too long.

Goal line technology is a bit of a red herring in my opinion. Will only be an issue very rarely and even then the ref and his 4 assistants will get it right more often than not. Meanwhile multiple decisions on offsides, penalties and red cards are wrong in every tournament, often a big mistake in every other game it seems. That problem is completely ignored in all this goal line technology talk.
 
But UEFA are ditching the Poland/Ukraine and Switzerland/Austria format. They are abandoning the policy you use to support their fair mindedness. So to rephrase your statement, if this was not some part of an overall money making scheme for UEFA why stop tournaments like Poland and Ukraine or Switzerland and Austria as co-hosts?

I don't know the UEFA motivation for these changes. However, I can see similarities between this and the CL changes. The changed format favours the big countries and big clubs, while a sop is thrown to the smaller countries in the form of a few CL group spots or Euro cities,

I honestly don't know why they would be ditching the co-host format, first I've heard of it.
 
But UEFA are ditching the Poland/Ukraine and Switzerland/Austria format. They are abandoning the policy you use to support their fair mindedness. So to rephrase your statement, if this was not some part of an overall money making scheme for UEFA why stop tournaments like Poland and Ukraine or Switzerland and Austria as co-hosts?

I don't know the UEFA motivation for these changes. However, I can see similarities between this and the CL changes. The changed format favours the big countries and big clubs, while a sop is thrown to the smaller countries in the form of a few CL group spots or Euro cities,

Like the FA cup and Europa League the Euros are fast losing their appeal. UEFA see change is needed to keep it fresh.
 
The format is a mess now that its 24 teams.
4 third place teams now qualify from 6 groups along with the 12 first and second place teams.

So that's 24 group games to eliminate 8 teams that wouldn't have qualified for the current tournament.
And then the remaining 16 teams are whittled down to 1 over 13 games.

There's gonna be a complete lack of quality.
And there's gonna be terrible teams playing for draws in the groups to get through in 3rd place.

The next two Euros will be terrible so having groups in Scotland/England Holland/Belgium Spain/Portugal Italy/Switzerland Germany/Austria Sweden/Denmark in 2020 isn't the end of the world.
 
They are different, which is nice. The world cup gets the variety with teams playing differently (although becoming less so), but you get some poor contests. The Euros with the 16 teams have higher intensity throughout. The expansion of the Euros will dilute the quality without the benefits of variety.
 
Munich
Baku
Rome
St Petersburg
Brussels
Copenhagen
Budapest
Amsterdam
Dublin
Bucharest
Glasgow
Bilbao
London
 
this is just a euro city tour isn't it, in the guise of a footy tourney ? Baku, my word, what is in Baku ? hope they'll have sorted planes an trains by the time this comes around, but who'd want to go there...
 

Group A: Rome and Baku
Group B: Saint Petersburg and Copenhagen
Group C: Amsterdam and Bucharest
Group D: London and Glasgow
Group E: Bilbao and Dublin
Group F: Munich and Budapest

Round of 16

27 June 1A v 2C, London
27 June 2A v 2B, Amsterdam
28 June 1B v 3A/D/E/F, Bilbao
28 June 1C v 3D/E/F, Budapest
29 June 2D v 2E, Copenhagen
29 June 1F v 3A/B/C, Bucharest
30 June 1E v 3A/B/C/D, Glasgow
30 June 1D v 2F, Dublin

Rest days on 1 and 2 July

Quarter-finals

3 July Saint Petersburg, 18:00CET
3 July Munich, 21:00CET
4 July Baku, 18:00CET
4 July Rome, 21:00CET

Rest days on 5 and 6 July

Semi-finals

7 July London, 21:00CET
8 July London, 21:00CET

Rest days on 9, 10, 11 July

Final

12 July London, 21:00CET
 
Baku is a bit of a problem, but this does provide some good venues. Who wouldn't like playing in Dublin? Budapest and Bucharest are decent choices that are unlikely to get European football otherwise.
 
Yes. Wembley makes more money for UEFA than any other stadium. The 90k capacity and high prices can't be matched anywhere else. Hence several CL finals and this competition format. We can be sure there is no favouritism to the FA.
 
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