I agree with most of the points laid out by rogorn but my personal stance would be to oppose a 32 team european championships. if we look at the qualification for euro 2008, we had (not sure about the exact figures) eight groups of 6 or 7 teams, i think it was 6 groups of six and 2 groups of seven or something like that. Thus, my point being that there are around 50/52 countries trying to qualify for the european championships, with two teams from each group going through making sixteen. if you were to base a 32 team qualification on that system, you're looking at 4 out of six teams going through in six groups and four out of seven teams in two groups leaving eighteen teams not qualifying. OK, past the mathematics, which quite obviously isnt my strong suit, my point is a 32 team european championship renders the two year qualification process, which in effect acts as a national teams "season", pointless.
I do not think it would be so much of a problem for the tournament itself with regards quality, ie. out of englands qualifying group you wouldve had four decent teams: croatia, russia, england and israel. but it does take away from the enthusiasm of the so-called smaller nations as it no longer becomes an achievement to qualify for a european championships, it becomes a privilege. What makes the european championships and world cups so special in ireland for example, is that it doesnt happen every four years for us, now of course, we would love to be there every single time, but at least with the hard qualification process that is in place now, we are there on merit and because at that period we have reached a certain high standard of play.... taking away would significantly decrease the passion shown by smaller nations fans once the tournament commences.
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