For the first time in history the 2016 European Championship has a new-look where 24 teams will feature in the tournament, an addition of eight more teams than in past competitions. The draw for the summer competition was made on Saturday in Paris, where Michel Platini, the UEFA President was absent from the event because of the 90 days ban imposed by FIFA. Iceland, one of the smallest nations in Europe will face Austria, Hungary and Portugal in group F. Perhaps, it is the happiest country to be in the tournament because it has a population of only 320,000. Another team in a difficult group is Republic of Ireland, drawn together with Belgium which is ranked No. 1 in FIFA ranking, Italy and Sweden.
In the new-look competition, four best teams will be selected among the third-placed teams and join the group winners and run-ups in the knock-out stage. The competition which will be hosted by France from June 10 to July 10, will see many fans from across the world participating in football bets in favor of their teams. In fact, betting on soccer is very common when it comes to major football tournaments.
A Review of the Groups
Group A will feature the host France, Romania, Switzerland and Romania. In the past few weeks, the coach for France Didier Deschamps, has had challenging moment with the French federation, because it want Karim Benzema not to be selected for the tournament until an investigation on his conduct is concluded. In this group, the French are expected to progress with ease to the next round because they are in an easy group. Group B consist of England, Russia, Slovakia and Wales. The coaches of England and Wales wanted to avoid each other at the group stage, but that didn’t favor them.
Group C involves World Cup champions Germany, Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland. In fact, Germany was beaten in qualifying groups by Poland, and will face off again. Group D consist of 2010 world champion Spain, Croatia, Czech and turkey. According to the latest FIFA ranking, this group emerges to be the toughest and also very strong. Group E has Belgium, Republic of Ireland, Italy and Sweden. As mentioned above, Group F has Portugal, Hungary, Austria and Iceland, the Portuguese emerging as the favorite to top the group.
Overall, the tournament would be very exciting and to an extent surprising because of the additional teams. In fact in the qualifying groups, there were many surprise, and same is expected to happen during the competition. Betting on soccer will be expected to dominate many online casinos during UEFA European Championship. Winners of Group A-D may find themselves proceeding easily to quarter finals because they will face-off with third-placed teams in the knock-out stage. As the tournament is only is months away, fans will place their football bets in support of the favorite teams.