Has the third place lifeline ruined the Euros?

[St Pauli]

Hear me out-

If you are a shit team, you can aim to draw three games and you’ll probably qualify for the third round.

This means shit teams like Slovenia and Switzerland park the bus in their final game, if not all games.

It makes for boring defensive football and games, and means that teams like England don’t actually know how good they are going into the knockout stage, because they’ve not actually played any team who are trying to score a goal….

Discuss.

[NathStPaul]

Yeah I agree, it was unnecessary.

[Snowflake Royal]

Disagree with the reasoning, agree the 3rd place qualifying is shit.

I'd rather watch Switzerland than England.

[St Pauli]

Would also explain why so many ‘top teams’ struggle in the group round.

It’s not a normal football competition at this stage. It’s neither a knock out competition, nor a league, both of which will punish you for seeking draws.

[Brum Royal]

Can't remember who said it on the general Euros thread, but having gone to 24 teams for Euro 2020, it should have expanded again to 32, or contracted back to 16. 24 teams just doesn't work as a competitive concept. The 3rd place system is rubbish.

[Sutekh]

Can't remember who said it on the general Euros thread, but having gone to 24 teams for Euro 2020, it should have expanded again to 32, or contracted back to 16. 24 teams just doesn't work as a competitive concept. The 3rd place system is rubbish.

Least it's not as bad as the laughable decision in the 1982 WC to have 24 teams and two rounds of group stages but would agree they should adopt 32 for the next Euros as they're never going to reduce the numbers.

[Stranded]

The only thing the 3rd place qualifier does is mean you don't really have any dead rubbers in the last round of games as every game has something riding on it for at least 1 team - think only Poland were knocked out after 2 games this time round?

Would definitely back going to 32 though - would the tournament be worse if the following nations were also there:

Norway
Greece
Wales
Sweden
Montenegro
Finland
Israel
Luxembourg

(these are the sides that finished 3rd in their qualifying group and either didn't make or lost in the Nations League play-off)

Yes it would mean 32 of 54 UEFA sides playing in the final tournament but you could structure the qualifying to add some jepoardy i.e. just 20 or so direct qualifiers with the rest being decided via play-off tournaments. And any way the Copa America doesn't really seem to suffer in popularity and that doesn't even have qualifying.

[Green]

I don't really mind the groups being easy and giving everyone a run out tbf, but I agree with Brum should've been expanded to 32 teams.

Then the decent teams are more or less assured of an easy group, and you've a higher chance of novelty minor nations getting their 15 minutes of fame.

[Winston Biscuit]

Would really need to re think qualifying if they expanded it out to 32 nations to avoid it being 18 months of a procession for quite a significant number of the teams

Moldova and Kosovo are the current ranked 31st and 32nd ranked nations in UEFA. Kazakhstan 33rd.

[Stranded]

Would really need to re think qualifying if they expanded it out to 32 nations to avoid it being 18 months of a procession for quite a significant number of the teams

Moldova and Kosovo are the current ranked 31st and 32nd ranked nations in UEFA. Kazakhstan 33rd.

Does anyone even care about Euros qualifying anyway? So does it matter if it becomes a procession?

Anyway for 2028 there are changes anyway.

Tournament is being held across the British Isles, so there are 5 hosts but only 2 can be guaranteed a spot. Is thought that all sides will play in qualifying with the 2 spots being held back for any hosts who fail to qualify by right.

Structure is changing too.

Qualifying groups will be 12 groups of 4 or 5 teams:

- 12 group winners will qualify
- Best 4 runners up qualify
- 4 spots from runner up play-off
- 2 host qualifiers
- 2 from Nations league play-off

So would be easy to switch that to top 2 in each group qualify directly. Then depending on if needed, 2 host spots and 6 play-off spots or 8 play-off spots if all British Isles team qualify.

[tulip]

Would really need to re think qualifying if they expanded it out to 32 nations to avoid it being 18 months of a procession for quite a significant number of the teams

Moldova and Kosovo are the current ranked 31st and 32nd ranked nations in UEFA. Kazakhstan 33rd.

Does anyone even care about Euros qualifying anyway? So does it matter if it becomes a procession?

Anyway for 2028 there are changes anyway.

Tournament is being held across the British Isles, so there are 5 hosts but only 2 can be guaranteed a spot. Is thought that all sides will play in qualifying with the 2 spots being held back for any hosts who fail to qualify by right.

Structure is changing too.

Qualifying groups will be 12 groups of 4 or 5 teams:

- 12 group winners will qualify
- Best 4 runners up qualify
- 4 spots from runner up play-off
- 2 host qualifiers
- 2 from Nations league play-off

So would be easy to switch that to top 2 in each group qualify directly. Then depending on if needed, 2 host spots and 6 play-off spots or 8 play-off spots if all British Isles team qualify.

Sounds better. Would there still be qualifying beforehand needed then?

[Green]

Do away with qualifying and make the nations league more of a thing. Qualification places come from that.