Le Rendez-Vous - Euro 2016 Qualification Thread

[GirlySports]

We are more than 2 years from the Euro 2016 tournament in France but the qualification draw was made today in Nice.

[d_phaneuf]

[d_phaneuf]

how to ruin the best international tournament going

up it to 24 teams so that a bunch more dead rubbers take place, it's still higher quality than the WC but that could change too

[d_phaneuf]

qualifying for the Euro's used to be tough

new format is 1st/2nd teams in both group qualify
the best overall 3rd place team qualifies

the other 8 3rd place teams go in to a playoff

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

how to ruin the best international tournament going

up it to 24 teams so that a bunch more dead rubbers take place, it's still higher quality than the WC but that could change too

But you get an extra knockout round, round of 16 matches

[Sylvanfan]

Looks like they need one more independent state in Europe to get that 36th team to make it a 36 team tournament.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Looks like they need one more independent state in Europe to get that 36th team to make it a 36 team tournament.

Interesting... Israel, Turkey, Cypress are in, but no Syria, Lebanon and Jordan..

[Locke]

I'm super looking forward to that Germany vs. Gibraltar match.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Interesting... Israel, Turkey, Cypress are in, but no Syria, Lebanon and Jordan..

Yes I'm replying to myself.

Researched this a bit - strictly political (and interesting), that Israel is in UEFA vs AFC... logically makes sense, as it'd be quite unsafe to see the Israeli's playing qualifiers in Islamabad, Baghdad & Tehran. Thus some countries had the ability to negotiate which of the Continental Federation they were to be a member of. Australia is another, moving from Oceania to AFC

Back to your regular Euro 2016 programming...

[GirlySports]

It wasn't a choice, Israel was kicked out of Asia in the 70s.

[troutman]

Tough group for Ireland.

[polak]

Hopeful that Poland can pull this off. Looks doable but far from a lock with the disappearing act that our stars are able to pull off when they put on the Polish jersey.

Probably the last tournament with the dortmund 3 playing this well. Hopefully we don't see another 2 decades pass until another legitimate core emerges again.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

There's enough people in Liechtenstein to put a team together?

[troutman]

Andorra - 85,000
Luxembourg - 538,000
Gibraltar - 30,000
San Marino - 33,000
Faroe Islands - 50,000
Liechtenstein - 36,000
Malta - 453,000
Montenegro - 625,000

[GirlySports]

Luxembourg really should be better than they are. They have been playing since 1911!

Bunch of underachievers.

[Locke]

Cue the rants from the major FAs about ridiculously overpacked international schedules.

And they'll have a point. The schedules were already far too compact and now they added more qualification games.

[GirlySports]

But they are getting the tv money for those "weeks of football", they'll be fine.

I don't think it's too different, in the past a team would play on Friday and Tuesday.

Now they play either on Thursday/Sunday, Friday/Monday, or Sat/Tues. In fact the clubs are releasing their players for one less day.