Quote (zarkadon @ Oct 10 2014 11:46pm)
Sadly, expanding the Euro from 16 to 24 teams has killed the qualifiers. The expansion was pointless to begin with, but ofc Platini had to make sure he kept the smaller nations happy by giving them a better chance to qualify so they'd vote for him.
Personally, I think that it would be better if the groups were smaller now. Having less games means less room for error and that would allow for there to be a chance for excitement... or at least get it over with asap.
Since 24 out of 54 teams have to make it to the torunament, the format I'd use would be:
host and champions directly qualify, leaving 52 teams fighting for the remaining 22 spots -> the 52 teams would be divided in 13 groups of 4; the champions and 5 best runnerups qualify while the 8 worst runnerups play a playoff for the remaining 4 spots
that sounds pretty good and would be a fair chance for everyone
but i doubt uefa will make something useful happen