'Euros for Europe' or Euros for the European 'club'?

UEFA's announcement that the European Championships will be held across the whole of the continent doesn't come as a surprise but it is certainly controversial.

There were rumours that UEFA were planning to have the Euros spread across Europe before the last championships but I for one didn't believe a word and just dismissed the rumour as that - a rumour. Although a few weeks ago, Michel Platini said that he liked the idea of having the European Championships in a number of different countries in Europe. This is when it dawned on me that UEFA were deadly serious about this and now they've made an official announcement on it, there's a huge chance that Euro 2020 will be held in several countries.

I can see the benefits of such a system though. The FA can hold part of a major football competition in this country without having to splash out on a bidding campaign when the money could be spent on grass roots football so that the national side has a good future. With money tight across Europe, the cost of the competition can be spread across the continent and countries who might not be able to afford to host the competition on its own can now have a slice of the pie.

Here is where I see problems occurring, there have been rumours circulating for years that UEFA (as well as FIFA) favour certain countries and 'don't like' others. Whether this is the case or not, UEFA will have a mammoth task on their hands when explaining to football associations that have bid to host Euro 2012 why they chose another country over them. One of these countries could well be England. I have a sneaking suspicion that if England is chosen as one of the hosts of Euro 2020, it could the last major tournament in this country for a long time.

FIFA and UEFA seem to have a policy of not choosing countries to host a tournament for a certain number of years after they've hosted or even bidded for one, this might not be an official policy but it comes across that way. So I wouldn't be at all surprised if in a few years time, football pundits in this country are discussing why England wasn't chosen to be a host of Euro 2020, although we have some of the best stadiums in the world as well as the obvious advantage of being able to host a major tournament whenever needed.