UEFA mulls plans to expand Euro Championship to 32 teams

LONDON: Buoyed by the success of this year’s European Championship, UEFA is exploring whether to expand the event again to create a 32-team tournament.

The review of the format comes as the bidding process is being put in place for Euro 2028 with a decision on the hosting set to come by the end of 2023.

It was only in 2016 that the tournament jumped from 16 to 24 teams. But UEFA is starting to analyze the feasibility of 32 of its 55 member nations contesting the European Championship from 2028, people with knowledge of the process told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private discussions.

There would be a knock-on effect for qualifying if UEFA went ahead with adding eight teams. The format would have to be overhauled or scrapped since more than half of the countries making the final cut would further diminish the value and interest in the existing structure where the continent’s teams are split into 10 groups.

Even with 24 teams now reaching the final tournament, the current pathway creates lopsided games that lack appeal to elite sides whose qualification would be a near-certainty and are less atractive commercially and to fans.

Euro 2020 finalist England scored 12 goals and conceded only one in two qualifiers against Montenegro. Italy, England’s opponent in Sunday’s final, played Liechtenstein in qualifying and won 6-0 and 5-0.

The option of pre-qualifying tournaments to weed out weaker nations has been floated, as is used in Asia and North America for their continental competitions.

UEFA could build on the early popularity of the new Nations League competition that splits teams into sections based on their rankings, ensuring more tightly-contested games that would be more appealing to broadcasters. Ultimately, it could replace the European Championship qualifying system while configured to ensure leading nations still have a clear route to the finals.

A reason to expand from 24 to 32 teams is also to smooth out the format at the final tournament.

With 16 teams from 1996-2012, the top two from the four groups advanced to the quarterfinals. The insertion of a round of 16 from Euro 2016 featured the top two from the six groups and the four best third-place teams. That has meant Switzerland, for example, having to wait around ater its final group games at Euro 2016 to discover if it has advanced.