Germany coach Joachim Loew has questioned the decision to expand the 2016 European Championship finals from 16 to 24 teams.
“As a coach I think that increasing the field of participants at the European Championship is questionable,” Loew told the German Football Association (DFB) website on Friday.
“This is also applies to the new qualification system. The sporting worth of each game and also the overall competition decreases.” For the first time the European Championships, held 10 June to 10 July 2016 in France, will have 24 teams.
Along with the first and second-placed teams in the qualifying groups, the best third-placed country also qualifies automatically for France. The other third-placed countries enter a play-off.
The draw for the qualification groups takes place on Sunday in Nice, with Germany joining Spain, Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina as top seeds.
