According to a media report, the European Football Association is investigating a possible expansion of the UEFA European Championship to 32 teams from 2028. The Continental Union is beginning to review the feasibility, the news agency reported. The Associated Press on Sunday. The review of the EM format is part of the bidding process to host the European Championship in seven years. The host is to be determined in late 2023. The next European Championships will be held in Germany in 2024, with 24 teams participating, as was the case in 2016 and this year.

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Should the 32 teams expand, more than half of the current 55 UEFA member associations will be there initially. The current format has been criticized repeatedly because in six groups, each consisting of four teams, the four third-placed teams qualify for the Round of 16. This led to waiting times for the third parties in which they did not know whether they would be in the knockout rounds. The Executive Committee will have to decide on the extension of the European Championship, with Rainer Koch, currently the interim president of the DFB, and Karl-Heinz Rummenig, sitting on the committee as representatives of the European Club Association ECA.

The expansion at the World Championships is already completed

The arena was recently extended at the World Championships. In Qatar, there will be 32 teams in the coming year, as was the case in the previous case. There are 48 teams in the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.