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Should the euros be expanded / shrunk |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 309
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Should the euros be expanded / shrunk
After all the permutations and seeing so many teams playing negatively to gain a chance of being a top 3 team would it be a idea to further expand to 32 to stop all this third place nonsense.
Ok it may devalue the completion as apart from maybe Denmark and Holland ( who imploded) I can't think who else the competion would benefit by having more qualifying Scotland Georgia Alternately should it shrink back to 16. Second question would this weaken the qualifiers by effectively having 32 from 54(?) qualify |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 3,733
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I'd put it back to 16 personally. That's enough for a tournament that's supposed to represent the best of Europe.
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 26,160
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Back to 16 in my opinion. This business of putting through so many 3rd placed teams has lead to a lot of defensive matches.
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: London
Posts: 10,702
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Back to 16 will never happen so I'm coming round to the idea of going to 32 as anything is better than this awful format with 24 teams.
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 6,215
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Tournaments never get smaller, they always get bigger.
Hence why Platini has been talking about expanding the World Cup to 40 teams now. |
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 26,160
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Quote:
Tournaments never get smaller, they always get bigger.
Hence why Platini has been talking about expanding the World Cup to 40 teams now. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 309
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Quote:
Oh yay, another round of duff matches.
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 117,016
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They need to cut it to 16 and grow it to 32. The 24 side format started off reasonably well but it's weakness is being exposed ruthlessly now, with so many sides playing 10-0-0 because they're happy enough to risk third.
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 30,241
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I think they should expand it so San Marino and the Faroe Islands could qualify as England would draw one of them and that would guarantee us a win and Harry Kane would score a goal
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 26,160
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Quote:
Imagine trying to work out the permutations of who went through from that also what would we have 8 last 16 automatically qualify and 8 play off games with 16 going home?
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 3,067
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It's been nice to see the likes of Iceland and northern Ireland on the big stage but it's been such a dull tournament so far it really needs to go back to 16 I think
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: London
Posts: 10,702
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Quote:
In theory, 40 teams would just mean an extra team in every group with the top two in each still getting through.
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 3,854
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Quote:
It's been nice to see the likes of Iceland and northern Ireland on the big stage but it's been such a dull tournament so far it really needs to go back to 16 I think
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 26,160
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Quote:
Five teams in a group would be awful because you would have one team left out of the final round of games while the others know what they need to do to overtake them. Whatever way it is sliced and diced the only way to get a fair tournament is to have 16/32/64 teams.
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Bexleyheath, SE London
Posts: 17,408
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Nothing can be done.
Even if UEFA proposed a reduction back to 16 teams - which wouldn't happen anyway - there isn't the slightest chance that it would be voted in by the member associations because they know it'll reduce once again their countries' chances of qualifying. On the other hand, UEFA could easily get a 32-team tournament voted through but that would dilute the quality further with more second rate teams playing more group matches, and you can only do that so many times before tickets start going unsold and viewing figures start falling. This is what we're stuck with now - thanks to Michel Platini and the Scottish and Irish FAs. |
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Portsmouth
Posts: 2,854
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It really desperately needs to return to 16 teams. But as already said it won't.
There's nowhere near enough quality to make it 32 teams, 24 is too lacking in quality as it is. For example this tournament wouldnt have missed the likes of Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Albania & Czech republic to name a few. And 3rd place qualifying from a group of 4 is ridiculous. I do not begrudge N-Ire and their fans a spot in the next round, but seriously one win in a match that could have gone either way and 2 losses gets you through. |
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#17 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 4,824
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I think they should stick to 24 teams but only have the top two through from each group.
4 best group winners straight through to the Quarter finals with the remaining 8 teams battling it out to play them. Either that or have 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 going through. |
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 4,398
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Quote:
I think they should stick to 24 teams but only have the top two through from each group.
4 best group winners straight through to the Quarter finals with the remaining 8 teams battling it out to play them. Either that or have 8 groups of 3 with the top 2 going through. Second scenario may work and could lead to more attacking play as goal difference or goals scored more likely to come into it e after only 2 games |
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#19 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: London, UK
Posts: 11,516
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Go back to 16. Third place qualifying for KO stages is a joke.
It encourages sides to play safe and settle for third. |
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Herts
Posts: 17,003
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Quote:
Go back to 16. Third place qualifying for KO stages is a joke.
It encourages sides to play safe and settle for third. |
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 15,843
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I'd go with 32. It means that over half the teams in qualification will be successful, but that's still more competitive than the 2/3 of teams in the tournament advancing from the groups now so I'd rather be overly nice to teams in qualifying and get ruthless when the big show starts.
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#22 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 3,733
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Quote:
Second scenario may work and could lead to more attacking play as goal difference or goals scored more likely to come into it e after only 2 games
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#23 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 4,398
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Forgot about that obvious scenario! OK, let's do 32 and might as well. Make the world cup 48, 12 groups of 4, top 2 qualify from each group!
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#24 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2002
Posts: 76,804
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Must say that I'm finding it difficult to get excited about this 3rd round of group games........I think that's partly down to 3 qualifiers because before the games we have a pretty good idea who's going to qualify. I suppose that would probably be the same under any system of 'groups' by the time you got to the last match
There is however one huge bonus of having 16 teams go through to a knockout stage.........this weekend we've got 8 knock out matches over 3 days.........every match a Cup Final, no playing for a point, winner takes all. What a feast ! |
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#25 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,106
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Quote:
Go back to 16. Third place qualifying for KO stages is a joke.
It encourages sides to play safe and settle for third. However, on the plus side it has meant that going into the final round of games every single team has had a chance of qualifying and therefore something to play for. Consider Albania and Turkey who were both on zero points after the first 2 games. Under a top 2 qualifying system they would have been out before the final round of group games. Under this system though they knew they still had a chance, were inspired to go for it and both won, meaning they may qualify for the knockout depending on other results. |
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