9 groups (1 with 5 teams, the rest with 6)
Winners + best second qualify directly = 10
8 other seconds + best third in a playoff against 9 4th placed teams = 9
8 other thirds in a play-off between them = 4
I don't want to see 2nd place teams being dumped in playoffs by 4th place teams.
I have no issue with 4th place teams in playoffs if there were say 7 groups.
Lorric wrote:
I don't want to see 2nd place teams being dumped in playoffs by 4th place teams.
And when a group has only 5 teams, you could be 4th with only one win, and then qualify after 2 draws .....
I don't like an acces list with "best/worst ranked", and 23 is a prime .... My solution would be to give a spot to the TH and create 3 groups of 4 and 8 groups of 5, top 2 adavance.
For qualifiers the best system is to have 9 of group of 5 teams and 2 groups of 4 teams and top 2 + best third to qualify. At final phase I prefer 4 groups of 6 teams and then either top 4 qualify or group winners qualify directly to quarters and we have playoff games between 2nd and 3rd placed teams.
Lorric wrote:
I don't want to see 2nd place teams being dumped in playoffs by 4th place teams.
And when a group has only 5 teams, you could be 4th with only one win, and then qualify after 2 draws .....
I don't like an acces list with "best/worst ranked", and 23 is a prime .... My solution would be to give a spot to the TH and create 3 groups of 4 and 8 groups of 5, top 2 adavance.
That might mean some teams get lucky and get in. I also wouldn't like such a short qualifying process.
The competition is diluted enough as it is with 24, I'd like to at least make sure Europe's best 24 get through.
9 groups, top 2, plus best 3rd, plus host France, plus 4 playoff winners.
I'd prefer like 7 groups, but I know it isn't going to happen.
25.06.-27.06. 15:00/18:00/21:00 Round of 16
30.06.-03.07. 21:00 Quarter Finals
06.05.-07.07. 21:00 Semi Finals
10.07. 21:00 Final, Stade de France
Nine of 51 games will be played at 15:00cet, five of these are on weekends.
I'm surprised to see that the quarter finals are spread across four days, while the R16 is rushed through in three days. With possible extra time and penalties, matches might even collide with one another. But UEFA seems to know that the Round of 16 is pretty pointless in this format anyway.
With three hours between the matches, they're unlikely to collide. And, as we have seen two years ago, if they were to collide, the next match simply starts at a later time.
For the group stage matches however I don't understand we they chose 1500/1800/2100 for the group matches, why couldn't it be 1630/1845/2100, for example?
The fact that there are only 3 days of round of 16 matches is because there are 5 days used for MD1 and 4 days used for MD3 of the group stage. MD1 only needs 4 days to complete, while MD3 only needs 3.
Friesland wrote:
For the group stage matches however I don't understand we they chose 1500/1800/2100 for the group matches, why couldn't it be 1630/1845/2100, for example?
to have the first game on prime time in Asia?
I don't know really
1/8 final should have been played across four days, and then 1/4 final across four days too with teams that played on same day in 1/8 final face each other in 1/4 final. Eight straight days with a game (2-2-2-2-1-1-1-1).
Also, 15:00 in summer in France (Mediterranean) is ridiculous, I remember Croatia - Japan game in Nantes in 1998 (just like 8 years later in NuernBerg in 2006 WC , it was like 1000 °C )... too hot, hostile conditions, ugly football.