Why is EURO 2016 not holding a third-place match?

(Baonghean.vn) - Of the three biggest football tournaments on the planet, World Cup, Euro or Copa America, only Euro still maintains the viewpoint that the main task of the old continent's football festival is to find the champion. That means the two losing teams in the semi-finals will be able to compete for third place. EURO 2016 is the same!

If there was a vote for the most “conservative” organization in the old continent, UEFA would surely get a vote from many football fans. It is very difficult for this organization to change its decisions, even if the change would increase fairness for the teams, such as applying the magic eye to determine whether the ball has crossed the goal line, which is a long-standing problem.

The first UEFA European Championship was held in 1960 in France, at the request of the General Secretary of the French Football Federation, Henri Delaunay. At that time, the continental football tournament was organized in a knockout format with only 17 participating teams. The four teams that reached the semi-finals included three representatives from Eastern Europe: the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, along with the host team, France. The Czechoslovak team defeated the host, France, 2-0 to win third place. In the next five EURO tournaments in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980, held in Spain, Italy, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Italy, the third-place competition was also held. The third-place teams were Hungary, England, Belgium, the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia, respectively.

Starting from EURO 1984 in France, UEFA believed that it was not necessary to organize the third place match for two very good reasons: after losing the semi-final, no team was excited to compete for third place and few spectators were interested in going to the stadium or watching the TV to watch this "match of the two losers". Obviously, UEFA officials viewed this match from an economic perspective rather than a professional one, when the audience was indifferent, it would be difficult to attract sponsorship and advertising. There were quite a few small countries, the dream of winning the European championship was always far away, and many times proposed to reorganize this "consolation" match for third place. These countries cited the third place match which is very popular in other international tournaments such as the World Cup, Confederations Cup, CAN or Copa America. But UEFA's answer was: No, who wants to go there to participate (?!). Even the French president of UEFA Jacques Georges at that time said: Almost every team that reached the semi-finals only dreamed of winning the championship. The main task of EURO is to find the champion, not to arrange the order of European teams.

An Thanh