I fear we are enjoying the last great European Championships,” claimed Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher in his Telegraph column back in 2012 and even those at UEFA headquarters were willing to acknowledge that the solution was far from perfect. “That is a problem,” admitted UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino. “It is not an ideal final tournament.”
Northern Ireland forward Jamie Ward celebrates after scoring against Greece
Northern Ireland forward Jamie Ward celebrates after scoring against Greece
But the finals were never what this decision was about. The ambition behind the expansion was to promote increased interest – and with it, marketability – for the sometimes arduous qualifying campaign. If more countries could become engaged throughout qualifying then UEFA had a better product to sell.
“With national team football, the fact that more teams qualify can boost the interest of some groups which today are decided already in the early stages,” added Infantino. “While the big countries should qualify as expected, a lot of smaller countries will have a lot more to play for chasing the extra qualifying places.” UEFA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein expanded the point further.
“In the big countries, the people will probably carry on watching,” said Epstein. “But the fight, the drama to qualify, will go down to pot two, three and four, where there is more possibility to qualify than before. So potentially it would increase the interest rather than decrease the interest because you will have more teams that will fight to the end to qualify.”
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