Reinventing the Wheel: The Euro 2020 Draw

This article initially started life as a part of general thoughts on the Euro 2020 postponement, but I figured I had enough thoughts on this to allow for a separate article. 

There's been a lot of criticism about the pan European Championship that was supposed to be held in 2020, now being held in 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Personally, I like the idea of playing a tournament in different countries as a one-off (and I'm looking forward to attending the tournament in person as a result.) but I'm not a huge fan of the way the group draw was done, or how the groups work. 

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the "one host gets three home games, the other gets two". I'd have organised it so the hosts would play their first two games at home and then played the final game against each other at a neutral venue. For example, England v Scotland would take place in Dublin and the other game (Czech Republic v Croatia) would take in Spain, as an example. Then you'd flip it so Spain v Republic of Ireland would happen at, say Wembley and Sweden v Poland would meet at Hampden. You could tie all six groups together and have it the closest possible venues to avoid as much travel as possible. For example, you could have:

Scotland-England switches with Spain-Ireland 

Italy-Azerbaijan switches with Russia-Denmark

Germany-Hungary switches with Netherlands-Romania. 

Honestly I'd have picked different pairings. Scotland-England makes sense, although Scotland-Ireland and England-Netherlands would probably be easier. Germany-Denmark, Spain-Italy, Hungary-Russia and Romania-Azerbaijan. It may have lopsided the groups a little bit but it would certainly be interesting and would limit the amount of travelling for the first two games. So you'd potentially have England v Netherlands in Glasgow, Scotland v Ireland in London, Germany v Denmark in Rome, Spain v Italy in Munich, Russia v Hungary in Bucharest, and Romania v Azerbaijan in Saint Petersburg. 

Except definitely not the last one as Azerbaijan haven't qualified anyway. Also, a few of these teams may still miss out so it would make the lopsided Groups irrelevant. Plus up to three teams can make it out of the group anyway so there's ways round it. 

But onto the main crux of this. I'd have set up the draw so that the host qualifiers would be seeded, and the non host qualifiers would have been seeded into two (or three if necessary) pots. I'd have held the draw AFTER the Playoffs (and played the Playoffs in December 2019) but that's by the by. It would have avoided a draw where it was guaranteed that Belgium and Ukraine could only go into one group out of six despite not being a host nation. 

So, using the teams who qualified as an example (using the real life hosts

Host Pot:

Italy 

Denmark and Russia 

Germany and Playoff Winner A*

England and Playoff Winner C

Spain and Playoff Winner B

Netherlands and Playoff Winner D*

Pot 1:

Belgium 

Ukraine 

France

Poland 

Switzerland 

Croatia 

Pot 2:

Portugal

Turkey 

Austria

Sweden 

Czech Republic 

Finland

Wales

In this scenario, you would draw one team from Pot One in each group, and one team from Pot Two in each group, with the final remaining team from Pot Two going to Group A and filling the role of Azerbaijan, who didn't qualify for the tournament. Therefore, let's use a hypothetical group draw. For this, I'm going to substitute Playoff winners A, B, C and D for Hungary, Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Kosovo. Three of which are hosts and the fourth team would be Kosovo as I think they'll win Playoff Path D. Anyway, this would leave you with a potential before the draw of:

Group A:

Host 1: Italy

Host 2:

A1:

A2:

Group B:

Host 1: Denmark

Host 2: Russia

B1:

B2:

Group C:

Host 1: Netherlands

Host 2: Kosovo*

C1:

C2:

Group D:

Host 1: England 

Host 2: Scotland 

D1:

D2:

Group E:

Host 1: Spain 

Host 2: Republic of Ireland 

E1:

E2:

Group F

Host 1: Germany 

Host 2: Hungary*

F1:

F2:

*If Romania won Path A, they would go into Group C as if is being played in Romania, and the Path D Winners, in my scenario here, Kosovo, would go into Group F. 

The way that the draw would work is the team drawn as Host 1 would play the team drawn as team 1 first, and then the team drawn as Host 2 would play the team drawn as team 2 first. Then they would switch, and Host 1 would play Team 2, and Host 2 would play Team 1. For the final group games, Host 1 would play Host 2 and Team 1 would play Team 2.

To demonstrate this better, let's do a hypothetical draw. 

Group A:

Host 1: Italy

Host 2:

A1:

A2:

Group B:

Host 1: Denmark

Host 2: Russia

B1:

B2:

Group C:

Host 1: Netherlands

Host 2: Kosovo*

C1:

C2:

Group D:

Host 1: England 

Host 2: Scotland 

D1:

D2:

Group E:

Host 1: Spain 

Host 2: Republic of Ireland 

E1:

E2:

Group F

Host 1: Germany 

Host 2: Hungary*

F1:

F2:

Pot 1:

Belgium 

Ukraine 

France

Poland 

Switzerland 

Croatia 

For Pot One, let's send Croatia to Group A, France to Group B, Poland to Group C, Ukraine to Group D, Belgium to Group E and Switzerland to Group F. This would leave you with groups of 

Group A:

Host 1: Italy

Host 2:

A1: Croatia

A2:

Group B:

Host 1: Denmark

Host 2: Russia

B1: France

B2:

Group C:

Host 1: Netherlands

Host 2: Kosovo*

C1: Poland

C2:

Group D:

Host 1: England 

Host 2: Scotland 

D1: Ukraine

D2:

Group E:

Host 1: Spain 

Host 2: Republic of Ireland 

E1: Belgium 

E2:

Group F

Host 1: Germany 

Host 2: Hungary*

F1: Switzerland 

F2:

Now for Pot 2.

Pot 2:

Portugal

Turkey 

Austria

Sweden 

Czech Republic 

Finland

Wales

For Pot 2, let's do Sweden to Group A, Czech Republic to Group B, Portugal to Group C, Austria to Group D, Turkey to Group E and Wales to Group F. 

Group A:

Host 1: Italy

Host 2:

A1: Croatia

A2: Sweden

Group B:

Host 1: Denmark

Host 2: Russia

B1: France

B2: Czech Republic 

Group C:

Host 1: Netherlands

Host 2: Kosovo*

C1: Poland

C2: Portugal 

Group D:

Host 1: England 

Host 2: Scotland 

D1: Ukraine

D2: Austria

Group E:

Host 1: Spain 

Host 2: Republic of Ireland 

E1: Belgium 

E2: Turkey

Group F

Host 1: Germany 

Host 2: Hungary*

F1: Switzerland 

F2: Wales 

This would leave Finland as the final team remaining, and they would fill the role as Azerbaijan as Host 2, and play their first two games in Azerbaijan. 

Therefore, the groups would be:

Group A:

Host 1: Italy

Host 2: Finland 

A1: Croatia

A2: Sweden

Group B:

Host 1: Denmark

Host 2: Russia

B1: France

B2: Czech Republic 

Group C:

Host 1: Netherlands

Host 2: Kosovo*

C1: Poland

C2: Portugal 

Group D:

Host 1: England 

Host 2: Scotland 

D1: Ukraine

D2: Austria

Group E:

Host 1: Spain 

Host 2: Republic of Ireland 

E1: Belgium 

E2: Turkey

Group F

Host 1: Germany 

Host 2: Hungary*

F1: Switzerland 

F2: Wales 

this scenario I am pairing:

Italy-Azerbaijan to Netherlands-Romania 

Spain-Ireland to Scotland-England 

Germany-Hungary to Denmark-Russia. 

Therefore in Group A, Italy would open the tournament against Croatia in Rome, then play Sweden in Rome, and finally Finland in Amsterdam. Finland would play Sweden in Baku, Croatia in Baku and Italy in Amsterdam. Croatia would meet Sweden in Bucharest. 

There's still a lot of travelling for Sweden and Croatia in this scenario, which is why I would have done the different pairings that I mentioned above. 

The final thing I would change is the Knockout round. I'd schedule it so the Knockout round takes place three or four days after the group stages ends, to give teams and fans a time to organise themselves. I would Seed the teams on Group Stage performance, so that the top six teams would be the group winners, with the best performing group winners ranked 1 and the worst performing ranked 6. The second placed teams would be ranked 7-12, and the four best third placed teams would be ranked 13-16. Then in the first round of the Knockout stage, 1 plays 16, 8 plays 9, 5 plays 12, 4 plays 13, 6 plays 11, 3 plays 14, 7 plays 10 and 2 plays 15. Then the winners meet in that order and it's a straight Knockout tournament as normal. Granted, this is a format that would work much better in a tournament taking place in one country rather than twelve, so this might be best saved for Euro 2024. But I feel it would encourage attacking football and make every group game mean something, even the previous "dead rubbers". 

And that'll do it for reinventing the wheel for the Euro 2020/2021 finals. Thanks for sticking with this article and letting me geek out on you all for a bit. 

Much love, and stay safe in these tough times. We'll all get through together.