Uefa confirms European Championship expansion
Uefa confirms plan to expand Euros from 16 to 24 teams from 2016
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Friday, 26, Sep 2008 10:34
Uefa has confirmed its plans to expand football's European Championship tournament from 16 to 24 teams from 2016 onwards.
The decision was made during a two-day executive committee meeting of European football's governing body in Bordeaux.
The new structure of the finals competition will see six groups of four teams, rather than the current four groups of four, with the top two teams qualifying for the second round by right.
The four best third-placed teams will also go through into the first knockout round, with the winners of these one-off ties then progressing to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and then the final.
In order to accommodate the increased number of fixtures, which will expand from 31 to 51, Uefa will expand the schedule of the tournament from three weeks to a full calendar month.
"This historic decision gives middle-ranked countries a much greater chance to qualify for the final tournament, thereby expanding the fan basis directly reached, and increasing the number of matches played and boosting the overall stadium capacity," a statement from Uefa claimed.
Fifa delegate Franz Beckenbauer, who was present at the committee meeting, leaked the decision to the media yesterday, and said there are "several reasons" for the new structure.
The expansion of the European Championships has long been advocated by current Uefa president Michel Platini, who has claimed increasing the number of teams by 50 per cent would not affect the quality of the competition.
Currently there are 53 member nations within Uefa who must compete for only 16 places at the Euro finals tournament, which are held every four years.
For World Cups, Fifa apportions only 13 qualifying positions to the European zone.
Europe has seen a substantial increase in the number of associated nations since the 16-team format was introduced in 1996.
Before this, the finals competition contained only eight teams and before 1980 only four teams qualified for the main draw.