EURO 2028 is expected to be held in the UK and Republic of Ireland. With the current format, EURO will have 24 teams divided into 6 groups. That does not seem to be enough for UEFA when FIFA has set a plan to increase the number of teams in the World Cup from 32 to 48 in 2026. UEFA plans to increase the number of teams participating in EURO from 24 to 32, the implementation roadmap within 6 years and try to make it a reality from 2028.
UEFA currently has 55 member states. If the number of teams participating in EURO is increased to 32, it means that only 23 teams are not allowed to participate in each season. There are many happy viewpoints that the upcoming EURO is a festival where big teams "do not need to play" in the qualifying round to participate officially.
Not to mention, UEFA has launched the Nations League for 3 more years. Teams in Europe will play tirelessly, the frequency of stars appearing in national team jersey will be more frequent.
UEFA did not hide its intention to sell more TV rights and increase competitiveness when increasing the number of teams. They also understand that this could cause the tournament to be "blized" in appearance. Therefore, some proposals to reduce the number of matches or organize the group stage in another way are also being considered.
For UEFA, when EURO is held with such a large number of participating teams, it will help the organization earn a lot of money. On the contrary, for the players, this is no different from the worst when tournaments have been taking place for many years and have increased the number of matches in each tournament.
Previously, from the 2024-25 season, UEFA also decided to change the format of the Champions League, causing the total number of matches of the tournament to increase by 100. Whichever team wants to win the championship can play a total of 19 matches.
"This only damages the quality of the tournaments. The children will not be able to see the best version of their idols on the field, in fact. These proposals will bring in large financial benefits in the short term but in the long term will reduce quality.
We have always had a concern that the players (the most important ones) are the only factor that can be spoken last. The PFA has had talks with Infantino and Wenger about the same. After that, we also met some players like Mata or Pogba to discuss. The upcoming meeting with UEFA will be the focus.
One third of the EURO 2020 players are playing in England, we hope they will have a say in this proposal" - Mr. Molango, President of PFA (England Professional Players Association) shared.
The reason UEFA wants to increase the number of teams participating in EURO 2028 is because the past 2 years of the pandemic have defeated many member federations and UEFA itself in terms of trade and cash flow. The recovery will take a long time, even a decade, so right from now, somewhat crazy options are also being considered.
Just suffering for the players, they will have to exert more effort to the point of exhaustion. Meanwhile, fans now have too many tournaments, each tournament has too many matches to watch, how long will the attraction last?
