Southgate hopes UEFA will allow 26-man Euro squads

ENGLAND boss Gareth Southgate has revealed that coaches are trying to convince UEFA to let them pick 26-man squads next month for Euro 2024 amid concern about player welfare. If successful, the move would hand a number of players on the periphery of national squads an unexpected lifeline. Managers are typically permitted to select 23 players for international tournaments. But at the delayed Euro 2020, squads were increased to 26 as a buffer amid Covid restrictions. Bosses were also allowed to pick 26 players for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It had been looking increasingly likely that UEFA would revert to the original 23-man rule for the Euros. However, Southgate admitted that there is a clamour within the coaching community to go with 26 players for the Euros in Germany this summer. Asked if the chances of picking more than 23 players had disappeared, Southgate admitted: ‘It seems to be. There is one more UEFA meeting (in a fortnight) where there’s been a little bit of talk among some of the coaches about possibly increasing that. ‘We’ve got to make the best decisions with what we know and some of those currently are going to be medical decisions. And we’ve been able to get those right in the previous tournaments. ‘We’ve been able to give people time, but with 23 that’s definitely more difficult.’ If the number is increased, Southgate could open the door to the likes of fringe stars Ollie Watkins, Cole Palmer, Anthony Gordon and Jarrod Bowen. There is a plan for Southgate to name a squad of around 30 towards the end of May ahead of the pre-tournament training camp at St George’s Park. He admits he is facing a ‘complicated’ Euro 2024 selection choice given England’s potential fitness and availablity issues heading into the summer. The final squad does not have to be submitted to UEFA until June 7, but cup-final participation is set to dent numbers for the friendlies against Bosnia and Iceland. Asked after this week’s 2-2 draw with Belgium how many extra headaches returning to a 23-man squad will throw up, Southgate said: ‘Yeah, it’s going to be complicated, because firstly the injury situations that we have. Some will be back playing at the weekend, some will be back playing in a couple of weeks, some will be really close to the end of the season. ‘Then we’re going to have the European finals, the FA Cup final and the two friendlies that we’ve got ourselves.’