UEFA President Michel Platini Considers Expanding European Championship

UEFA President Michel Platini and his advisers are discussing "revolutionary plans to expand the European Championship into a huge rival to the World Cup," according to Mihir Bose of the London INDEPENDENT. In the "biggest change" to int'l football for three decades, the "revamped tournament would see national teams from other continents invited to take part." Under the new blueprint, which is "another sign of the growing rift" between Platini and FIFA President Sepp Blatter, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and "even Japan would be invited to compete against Europe’s leading teams at Euro 2020." The plans are "still to be finalised, let alone approved," but a senior adviser to Platini said, "The ideas are at an early stage but they are very feasible. The South Americans have been doing it for decades, inviting teams from outside their continent to take part in the Copa America. So why cannot Europe?" (INDEPENDENT, 10/5).