The European championship is set to be expanded to feature 24 teams from 2016 instead of the current 16, according to Franz Beckenbauer.

 

A Uefa executive committee meeting on Thursday discussed the issue and will rubber-stamp the decision on Friday.

 

"Yes for sure it's going to be 24 teams," said Beckenbauer, who is vice-chairman of Uefa's development and technical assistance committee.

 

"The European Championships will not lose any quality by that."

 

Former German international Beckenbauer is not a Uefa executive committee member but is a European Fifa executive member who sits in on the meetings as a non-voting observer.

 

The proposal to expand the competition was put forward by the Scottish Football Association and Football Association of Ireland last year.

 

The new format will mean fewer countries will have the capacity to host the tournament but it is believed the 53 member nations are unanimously in favour of the change.

 

"I think the expansion will be better for the game - more teams will have the chance of qualifying and the excitement of the groups will go on for longer," said Scottish FA chief executive Gordon Smith.

 

"It is disappointing in that it means we will not be able to stage the tournament in the future, and we recognise that will be the case.

 

"It was a trade-off between trying to stage it or open up the qualification process and we have decided to look at something that helps everybody."

 

Spain emerged victorious at Euro 2008 earlier this year at a tournament where there was no presence from the home nations.

 

The expanded version should mean it is easier for Scotland and other home nations to qualify but Smith added: "It will make it easier for other countries such as England who failed to qualify for Euro 2008.

 

"We didn't do it specifically for that purpose however."

 

Source: BBC Sport

 

So, a good or bad idea then?

 

I don't think Scotland would ever get to stage the tournament (although they might get the 2012 one if Poland's grounds and transport links remain as awful as they are)

 

This way we have the possibility of playing in the finals again (as do England!) along with a lot of the other forgotten men of European football - Hungary, Belgium, Northern Ireland etc.

so how does having more teams efect who can host?

 

and how are the groups going to last longer, how are they going to do it? 8 groups of 3?

so how does having more teams efect who can host?

Because there will be more matches and therefore more stadia needed.

Well, if it means Scotland will be there, then I'm all in favour of them.

Yeah, it's better for the small countries definitely (or in principle anyway). But I reckon they'll have 6 groups of 4, and then the tournament will probably rotate between England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal and maybe a few other countries.

It's hard to come up with a format which doesn't either result in a lot of meaningless matches or which takes ages to reduce 24 teams to 16. The World Cup had 24 teams for a short period and they never came up with a suitable format.

It's hard to come up with a format which doesn't either result in a lot of meaningless matches or which takes ages to reduce 24 teams to 16. The World Cup had 24 teams for a short period and they never came up with a suitable format.

 

And you also had teams who would have to wait before discovering if they were still in the tournament or going home.

this 24 team format is going to flop on its rear end. You can only really have 8, 16, or 32. And in Europe 32 would be too many really, so it can only really be 16, unless Europe keeps growing and growing :lol:

 

 

At least the new UEFA Europa League structure works fine.

this 24 team format is going to flop on its rear end. You can only really have 8, 16, or 32. And in Europe 32 would be too many really, so it can only really be 16, unless Europe keeps growing and growing :lol:

Absolutely right.

You could increase the current four groups to five teams and have 20. It'd be easily plausable however you'd have the situation where one team has finished all their games before the others which they wouldn't want...