MrDuck Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Just reading about the format for the 2016 Euro Finals. Christ, what a bloated mess it looks... 24 teams, 51 games, 31 days. The last tournament was 16 teams, 31 games, 23 days. 2 years of qualifying to reduce the pool from 53 to 24 teams, then 36 group games to get from 24 teams to 16. Quote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016 UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino previously described the format as "not ideal" due to the need for third-ranked teams in the group stage advancing, leading to a difficulty in preventing situations where teams might be able to know in advance what results they need to progress out of the group, lending to a lack of suspense for fans, or even the prospect of mutually beneficial collusion between teams. I fail to see how this improves the tournament in anyway other than increased TV revenue - although I realise that is of course the primary aim! Nice one Platini. I look forward to 2020, when presumably you'll invite guest teams from other federations and we can expand the tournament to 37 teams of something equally brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czechlad Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 I only like it because Czech wouldn't get in otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 I only like it because Czech wouldn't get in otherwise. they qualified for last 5 tournaments. im sure it would not have been a problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 9, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 9, 2014 When you take the "minnows" out of the qualifying, i.e. teams that have zero chance of making it, it makes it look even worse. Probably everyone from Luxembourg down (9 teams), and that's being generous. Basically out of the 44 teams who could realistically make it (and like I said that's generous), 24 will make it. 55% You have to try damn hard not to qualify for this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 It does dilute the competition as I do feel the Euros is probably the hardest tournament to win due to the calibre of teams. usually ends up with one or two groups with 2 or 3 really top teams. 2012 had Holland, Germany, Portugal and Denamrk in one group and another had Croatia, Spain and Italy for example Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa89 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 The group phase to qualify is a farce, the group phase in the tournament itself is a farce and the last 16 will probably also be awful. The competition has been ruined by the greed of UEFA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 think it was an idea from Scottish FA and FAI so we could qualify Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 It's UEFA's way of getting more money for the TV rights. Why sell to 16 finalists when you can sell to 24? That's like, 50% better isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 31 days is an entire month. It's guaranteed to be too much of a good thing, everyone will have fatigue by the end of that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted September 9, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted September 9, 2014 All this being said, it will be nice for teams like Wales and countries of that sort of level to be in a major tournament for once. So I'm sure they're not too fussed (that sounds really patronising, I didn't mean it to be) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 if it aint broke... platini might just ruin the best football tournament going, all in the interest of "giving the smaller nations a chance" which to me means 2 things, the likelihood of say england in 2008 happening again is very slim, so not only like the rev says will the increased games lead to increased revenue this format pretty much guarantees that all the big teams that the sponsors like will be there, second, it strengthens platini's position as the head of UEFA, in the other threads there are discussions about how platini wont drop the minnows from qualifying and how blatter is pally with the african and asian nations, these kind of things lead to votes further down the line personally i think england missing from 2008 set this in motion, we bring money also the decision to split 2020 all over europe, which i still think might actually work, thats purely about money, that was following the poor sales of corporate tickets in poland / ukraine, wembley is absolutely nailed on to get the final because its a huge cash cow for UEFA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Two Champions League finals in three years shows exactly what UEFA think of Wembley. Say what you want about the place, but there can't be many better places in the world to have a weekend junket than London, and of course not only does it bring in huge crowds it brings in individual big spenders in droves too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Uefa president Michel Platini has threatened compatriot and now-retired former France playmaker Franck Ribery with a suspension, according to Sunday's version of Bild newspaper. Bayern Munich winger Ribery announced his retirement from France duty after the World Cup in Brazil, which he missed due to a back injury. But Platini now claims the 31-year-old will have no choice but to continue playing for his country if selected. "Franck cannot decide himself whether he plays for France," said the former France star and coach. "If (coach) Didier Deschamps picks him, he must come. That's the FIFA rule. If he doesn't come, he will be suspended for three Bayern Munich games." There is a FIFA rule in place which forces players to accept national team call-ups to prevent them - or rather their clubs - from picking and choosing which internationals they play. But national teams usually respect a player's decision to retire from international duty. That wasn't the case, however, back in 2006 when then France coach Raymond Domenech forced Claude Makelele, then 33, to turn up to represent the national team despite having announced his international retirement after the World Cup. That led to Makelele's then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho accusing Domenech of treating his player "like a slave". deschamps would be crazy to call him up, surprised he's retired before the euros in france but im assuming he's struggling with injuries also found it a bit strange last night that benaglio had retired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Wasnt the rumour that Ribery was dropped by Deschamps as he was a bad influence along with Nasri and they claimed was an injury Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Yeah he won't be getting a call up, so it won't even matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG_Villa_Fan Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 How long before these qualifications become similar to those of other sports, such as basketball - where the star players of the best teams only ( eventually ) participate in the tourney, but skip the qualification entirely. Nations like Germany could very easily qualify without the likes of Hummels, Ozil, Kroos, etc. Club teams will be all over it, of course, as it spares their stars and UEFA will be mad cause no one would be interested in watching these god awful qualification week breaks. Actually the interest will be even lower after a few games when the top 2 teams will be clear in each or most groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPower_14 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Uefa president Michel Platini has threatened compatriot and now-retired former France playmaker Franck Ribery with a suspension, according to Sunday's version of Bild newspaper. Bayern Munich winger Ribery announced his retirement from France duty after the World Cup in Brazil, which he missed due to a back injury. But Platini now claims the 31-year-old will have no choice but to continue playing for his country if selected. "Franck cannot decide himself whether he plays for France," said the former France star and coach. "If (coach) Didier Deschamps picks him, he must come. That's the FIFA rule. If he doesn't come, he will be suspended for three Bayern Munich games." There is a FIFA rule in place which forces players to accept national team call-ups to prevent them - or rather their clubs - from picking and choosing which internationals they play. But national teams usually respect a player's decision to retire from international duty. That wasn't the case, however, back in 2006 when then France coach Raymond Domenech forced Claude Makelele, then 33, to turn up to represent the national team despite having announced his international retirement after the World Cup. That led to Makelele's then Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho accusing Domenech of treating his player "like a slave". deschamps would be crazy to call him up, surprised he's retired before the euros in france but im assuming he's struggling with injuries also found it a bit strange last night that benaglio had retired What i'm basically taking from this is that England should have ignored Paul Scholes' international retirement and continued to select him for like a decade, and probably even now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 How long before these qualifications become similar to those of other sports, such as basketball - where the star players of the best teams only ( eventually ) participate in the tourney, but skip the qualification entirely. Nations like Germany could very easily qualify without the likes of Hummels, Ozil, Kroos, etc. Club teams will be all over it, of course, as it spares their stars and UEFA will be mad cause no one would be interested in watching these god awful qualification week breaks. Actually the interest will be even lower after a few games when the top 2 teams will be clear in each or most groups. thats not going to happen though, international teams would sanction their players for not turning up and if honest except Germany no other nation has the resources to play a B or under 21 team and expect to qualify also believe it or not, a lot of continental players actually like playing for their country Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 The more the merrier. 16 teams is not enough when you consider that 13 European teams go to the World Cup. It's supposed to be easier to qualify for your continental tournament than it is to qualify for the World Cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Decided I was not going to watch any of this when I read about the format. Tell me when its time for quarter-finals. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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