Alan Pardew: "A reason for the success of the Euro 2012 competition is that the smaller format of 16 teams has worked brilliantly.
"Going to 24 teams for the next tournament in four years' time really devalues it and the consequence will be more games like Spain-Ireland that are just one-way traffic and nobody wants to see that.
"Apart from one or two teams, the standard has been pretty even, the two host countries who were the lowest ranked have given it a good shot feeding off the backing of home crowds and even a team like Germany, who look very strong, are only winning their games by the odd goal.
"Going to 24 teams means almost half of the countries in Europe will qualify, and then you have an awkward number for the final stages.
"It's a backward step."
Source: FOOTYMAD
