Richard Sutcliffe: UEFA’s own goal in opening up Euros to footballing minnows

Where we usually get drama, tension and suspense, the two-legged deciders to finalise the Euro 2012 line-up of countries were distinctly underwhelming.

Three of the four ties were effectively over after 90 minutes thanks to the Republic of Ireland, Croatia and Czech Republic building up insurmountable leads, leaving Tuesday’s return legs as non-events with the only pertinent question beforehand being just how large the winning margin would be.

In the end, Estonia claimed a 1-1 draw at the Aviva Stadium as the Republic went through 5-1 on aggregate, Turkey and the Croats fought out a dull goalless draw to ensure Slaven Bilic’s side coasted through 3-0 – a scoreline that Montenegro were on the wrong end over two legs against Czech Republic, who scored the only goal at Podgorica.

Even the one tie still in the balance after the first leg turned into a one-sided affair as Portugal romped to a 6-2 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. All in all, therefore, a few days that are unlikely to live long in the memory of anyone but the countries who qualified.

The one plus from such a dreary few days for the rest of Europe is that at least the insipid efforts of the Estonians, Bosnians, Turks and Montenegrans will not detract from what is shaping up to be a memorable tournament in Ukraine and Poland next summer.

And what an impressive line-up the final 16 looks to be, its strength being indicated by the ‘Group of Death’ that England could face (Spain, Portugal and France). Even the ‘Group of Debt’ will be intriguing, the footballing riches of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Greece being in stark contrast to their finances.

It would be wise, though, to make the most of it as Euro 2012 will be the last to feature just the cream of the continent with the plan from Euro 2016 in France being for 24 teams to take part, a decision by UEFA that will make it almost as hard to miss out on the finals as it will be to qualify.

Under the plan, the top two countries in every group will go through automatically along with the hosts and the third placed team with the best record. The eight remaining third-placed nations in the five-team groups will then play a knockout round to find the final four teams.

What a joke and a clear case of UEFA’s wilful ignorance of the golden rule, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

Why European football’s rulers made such a decision is a mystery as surely they realise the consequence is that a tournament where a team has to hit the ground running or risk going out at the group stage will instead more resemble the flabby early stages of a World Cup.

An illustration of this comes with the final qualifying group tables from Euro 2012, which under the new plans would have seen the likes of Estonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina go through despite the evidence of the past week indicating neither are worthy of a place among the elite.

Likewise, among the teams finishing third were Romania and Scotland, who could both only win three games out of 10 in groups containing Luxembourg and Liechtenstein respectively.

Can anyone, even supporters of the two countries, really claim that Euro 2012 will be any poorer for their absence. Or, for that matter, Armenia, Israel and Hungary – three more nations who finished third.

No, the decision by UEFA to open up future European Championships to 24 of their current 53 member nations is one that they will live to regret with the consequence being an inevitable drop in standards.