There are two ways of viewing the fact that a record 24 national teams are competing to lift the Henri Delaunay Cup at Euro 2016 in France. Some regard UEFA’s decision to include nearly half of its 55 members as a move to leverage football’s ability to bring people together in a celebration of sport and national identity.
The more cynical argue that inflating the scope and scale of the tournament is driven more by financial motives than sporting or political ones. The steady rise from the four teams that contested the inaugural finals of 1960 through the years of eight and 16 teams to the new set-up means more games and therefore more commercial activity.
Adding eight extra teams means an additional 20 matches, not to mention eight extra sets of fans, television territories and commercial domains with a direct stake in who wins. The 2.5m people UEFA expects inside the ten host stadiums, 1.5m of whom will be visitors to France, is a predicted rise of more than 1m on the 2012 tournament in Poland and Ukraine (see graphic). No doubt this will see the tournament better the €1.4bn (£1.1bn) in revenues generated last time around.
