Expanding the European Championship to 24 teams won't spoil the tournament, UEFA's tournament director Martin Kallen insists.
The Euro 2012
group stage with 16 teams went down to the wire as favorites Spain and Germany only squeezed through in their last game, so the worry is that Euro 2016 with 24 teams in France will not be as closely
contested. Adding more teams will also increase the number of matches from 31 to 51.
UEFA president Michel Platini defended the decision to expand
earlier this week but reporters pressed Kallen on the issue.
"At the moment we have the best teams here, but there are great teams who are not," he said, listing Switzerland, Romania,
Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovenia and Norway as examples. "The Scots are also not here -- they bring a lot of emotions, a lot of atmosphere with them. We need to see how 2016 will be. For sure, this
tournament will be more and more looked at because more nations can participate."

Carlos Thys


