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UEFA mean to do the same misbegotten things with the European finals, come 2016. Every god forsaken Euro country, no doubt hoping to be among the 32 elect, has voted for the idiotic Scottish proposal. Which means, alas, that more and more mediocre or worse teams will compete in the Euro finals, just as they clutter up the World Cup. Mind you, the Euros were a nice little tournament when only the last four survived to the last Stages. Then it was eight, now sixteen. Gigantism rules and reigns.

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It used to be a nice little tournament. Now it's an even nicer big tournament, with lots of fun and good football, and teams who'd never qualify for 4 or 8-team finals playing memorable games.

As for teams that clutter Finals, one of them, more often than not, is England. The proposal to enlarge might suit them.

And besides, more teams mean that things get decided where they should: on the field. 24 is an awkward number which involves best third-placed teams going through or three-team mini groups like at Spain 82. So I say: go directly to 32 for the next Euros. Besides the 16 who just took part (and the weakest, Austria and Switzerland, didn't disgrace themselves), you still have very respectable teams like England, Denmark, Bulgaria, Belgium, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Serbia, Ukraine, etc not qualifying. All for the price of one game more for the finalists, which is what happens at the World Cup.

I say bring it on.

('Every God-forsaken Euro country?' So much for standing against racism.)

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