England could face tournament hosts France in their Euro 2016 qualifying group under a radical rule change from UEFA. France will be the first host nation to take part in a European Championships qualification phase. France will retain automatic tournament qualification, with their group-stage contests serving as friendlies where no points will be awarded. UEFA will confirm the six seeding pots on Friday 24 January, ahead of the pool-stage draw in Nice on 23 February. UEFA's new rule is outlined in Euro 2016 regulation article 21.02, which reads: "The teams drawn into the group of five teams will have France added to their group for the purpose of playing centralised friendlies." England could face Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Croatia or Sweden should they be named as one of the top seeds as expected. France was chosen in 2010 after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the tournament. For the first time, the finals will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that had been used since 1996. Among the 53 teams who wil be in the qualifying draw are back-to-back defending champions Spain, and for the first time since their affiliation with UEFA, Gibraltar; the two countries are expected to be kept apart in the draw due to political sensitivities.
Nah we can take them easy. Hodgson will retire when we lift the world cup in Summer and then we'll have a decent manager
Makes sense to me.. means the group have even teams so you don't end up missing games each week. Means the host nation still get's to play at the same times and doesn't have to find teams not playing to play against. Don't see the problem myself?
Thing is if they didn't do this in a group of five one team would get a rest while the others play which could lead to arguments over a team being fresh just as they meet one of the groups big guns while another of the teams may have played them a few days after a previous tough match.
The title of the thread is dramatic but it just seems a bit weird to me, like whats the point What if France want to pick some fringe players and test themselves against a certain team, they'll have a lot less opportunities to as they'll have to fulfill these group fixtures Its never been a problem before for the host nation to pick their friendlies while others play their Q's
As the hosts the French football association, the clubs who's grounds are used during the tournament and the French economy benefit financially and should pay per game if they get included in a group to play their games as ' friendlies', England for example have to pay their friendlies opponents bills and expenses and give then a cut of revenue raised. Its like Platini is abusing his power within Uefa to help his home nation.
So let's say that they get drawn with England. That means that the FA have to arrange a friendly DURING the qualifying campaign when the clubs are desperate for their players.
i think it is silly. its a guaranteed route to the finals. surely on its face it makes zero sense to materially affect the outcome of a group AND force a team like france who could be playing spain in the emirates for example to play the faroe islands away. Its nonsense from a financial perspective and allows the hosts to play better against a rival in two games and dirt against another side to try to artificially affect things. thats two ways alone i can see it being silly. MAYBE the way international dates are the big teams globally are all playing some competitive match and poor broke france can't find someone the emirates or dubai or where ever will pay to go see? perhaps the faroes will be offered a nice slice to rob thier home fans of the game and to travel to said arab area to view game?
Ridiculous. Friendlies smack bang in the middle of a qualification group. What's the bet France win the group playing with 0 pressure. I hope they do, it will make the whole thing a proper farce.
Don't even think they'll make it out of the group, hope they don't actually, hate international football. This is a terrible idea btw, like the double points for the last race of the F1.
The double points discussion was quite funny. The suggestion only came up after Vettel had won the title with about three or four races to spare, the double points wouldn't have made a different
Yeah, terrible idea! They should have made the last race count for 10 times the points. Then that bloody German could be stopped!
