What if ... Euro 2008 had 24 teams?

Spain had barely been crowned champions of Europe when the UEFA brain trust decided to crassly announce they had every intention of capitalizing on the success of Austria-Switzerland by bumping up the number of entrants to the final tournament in 2016 to 24 from the current 16.

I'd like to think that most everyone feels this is simply a boneheaded idea spawned from the mind of someone who routinely says boneheaded things, Michel Platini. Yes, it appears this will indeed become reality, thereby ruining the unique format of the Euro tournament: the top 16 teams from the deepest confederation in the world.

But let me play devil's advocate for a moment and paint a picture of what Euro 2008 might have looked like had 24 teams been part of the competition. We know who the top teams are, since they were in the actual field. The remaining teams would consist of the third place finishers in the seven qualifying groups, plus the top fourth place finisher:

Serbia, Scotland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, England, Northern Ireland, Bulgaria and Finland (24 pts.), who edge out Israel (23 pts.).

Initially, this looks like a fairly forlorn group, right? But Serbia and Finland (tied on 24 points) played well in Group A, only trailing Poland and Portugal by four and three points respectively. Remember the Portuguese were favourites at one point, right? Well, they only managed four points out of four games against these two sides.

Scotland of course caused France and Italy no end of trouble in qualifying, while Northern Ireland beat both Spain and Sweden at home and only lost 1-0 to the European champions in Las Palmas. Bulgaria meanwhile suffered its only loss away to the Dutch, 2-0.

Norway and Finland are both plucky teams in the Scandinavian mold. The Republic of Ireland were the only side to finish third in their group with fewer than 20 points (they had 17) but even they would have been a match for the hapless hosts Austria.

And finally England. While they did seem to miss out in the most spectacular fashion, essentially sealing their own fate with a rare home loss to a very impressive Croatia, England rarely fail to compete at tournaments. They may make things hard on themselves, but aside from Euro 2000, they have made the knockout stage of each tournament since 1996. They would have been at least as good as the Czechs, who I think were the best team not to advance in this year's tournament.

The biggest fault I see with the 24 team format is that the number of games would make the proceedings drag on. Sixteen teams makes for a short, intense spectacle, which is what I think we all enjoy about the Euro.

Transfer News & Rumors

The Guardian reports Zenit St. Petersburg have rejected a £11.8 million bid from Barcelona for Andrei Arshavin. With Chelsea also in the hunt, Arshavin has been given two weeks off by the Russian club, in the midst of their season, to decide his future.

Chelsea are ready to break the world transfer fee record to secure the services of AC Milan's Kaka, according to The Times. This would mean an amount in excess of the £46 million paid by Real Madrid for Zinedine Zidane. Milan would prefer to not sell their Brazilian star, but the club is suffering financially after failing to qualify for the Champions League.

A report in The Mirror has Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon claiming the Spanish champions will back off on a bid for Cristiano Ronaldo until the Manchester United winger proves his fitness, but said his club is still interested:

"If they say sometime that they would like to sell we will be there and will ask."

And so the saga continues...

The Daily Mail is reporting that Liverpool has given striker Peter Crouch permission to speak with Portsmouth. The Merseyside club has accepted an offer for the England player, bringing one of Liverpool's transfer sideshows to an end.

Alan Shearer is getting ready to take over as manager of Championship side Southampton, according to The Daily Star. The former Newcastle striker turned down an offer from Toon boss Kevin Keegan to be the No. 2 at St. James Park earlier this year. Now, can he bring the fragile Saints back to the Premier League?

Finally, Joan Laporta was given somewhat of a reprieve yesterday when only 60.6 per cent of Barcelona club members gave him the thumbs down. The vote was six per cent short of the two-thirds required to oust the top man at the Nou Camp. Some 37,294 members turned up to vote, easily surpassing the 10 per cent of all members (15,184) needed to legitimize the vote. Laporta, according to a story on the ESPN Soccernet website, vowed to continue despite the apparent lack of support:

"It may seem contradictory, but in a few months time we will see that Barca is the real winner," he said. "It's a democratic exercise which could not possibly cause any social division. The Board should read into the results and analyse them profoundly as this is a really good result for us."

Good luck, Joan.