Euro 2016

I know it isn’t any different from any other chronological sequence FIFA has going on but I get the feeling I’m getting spoiled. I mean since FIFA has been around they have been rolling out the international tournaments back to back. It seems like every year now  there is a tourney for me to cast my eye  over but that isn’t the case. Just so happens the events are hot on the heels of each...first it was the World Cup in Brazil in 2014 then we had the CONCACAF Gold Cup and CONMEBOL’s Copa America making magic happen in the United States and Chile respectively this year. These competitions thank goodness haven’t been coming every two or three years like a good James Bond flick, they are stacked against each other and I for one am very grateful. In journalism class they said you have name what your actually talking about pretty much from the first sentence, fortunately I barely scraped by that course and as a result I’m now mentioning the phrase "EURO 2016 France.” Maybe I should have paid a little more attention in my schooling but forgive me I was too busy watching soccer anyway to on my iPad and come June 10th of next year I plan to do the same thing as this peach of a tournament fires up in Paris. A new dynamic was added to this addition of the Euros in the form of team expansion, instead of a field of 16 there will be 24 teams prancing around France in the summer. So let’s take a look at who’s in the mix.

Group A

France 

Albania 

Romania

Switzerland

Group B

England 

Russia

Slovakia

Wales

Group C

Germany 

Northern Ireland

Poland

Ukraine

Group D

Croatia

Czech Republic

Spain

Turkey

Group E

Belgium

Italy

Republic of Ireland

Sweden

Group F

Austria 

Hungary

Iceland

Portugal

As every sports entity that covers European football has noted millions of times over this Euros will not feature The Netherlands! From a personal standpoint its something that I won’t look forward to seeing and not having one the marquee teams in the showpiece event is a shame but we move on! Having an expanded feel makes for a more drawn out effect for me, especially when you look at some of the teams who made it. I definitely won’t be circling the date when Romania takes on Albania in "Group A." I find it hilarious that FIFA is aiming to “grow the game,” all over the globe. Obliviously they didn’t get the memo when it came to Europe. UEFA does not need any help whatsoever in branding and especially involvement of it’s peoples in the sport. If UEFA guaranteed me that; The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina and maybe a Finland were all in play at an UEFA tourney along with the tradition heavyweights and exciting new sides like Iceland sure...but if they can’t, they can keep their expansion. The whole point for me tucking into the Euros every four years is to see the exclusivity. This isn’t the Gold Cup. I don’t wanna see minnows who hit form at the right time and get hot and are able to sneak in. If I didn’t love soccer to be very honest I couldn’t watch the Gold Cup! There is only so much I can take of Haiti blasting balls at Jamaica’s shaky goalkeeper from 40 yards out. I come to the Euros and to a lesser extent the Copa America for seeing top quality ball per match constantly. With the wider class I have watch Hungary fluke the ball up the pitch and hope Balázs Dzsudzsák can somehow rain dance the ball through the back of the net. Hopefully I’m wrong and all participants put worth pure quality.