Going to the European Championship with 23 players?
Nagelsmann calmly awaits important UEFA decision
April 9, 2024, 6:48 a.m
The European Football Championship starts in Germany in just over two months. On the way there, national coach Julian Nagelsmann still has to make important decisions. Who represents Germany at the important tournament is the most important. Nagelsmann may not want to take full advantage of UEFA’s requirements.
Julian Nagelsmann may be able to nominate more players for the European Championships than previously thought. It is currently unclear whether the national coach would actually make use of the opportunity to have a larger squad. UEFA did not rule out an increase in squads from 23 to 26 players per team at the European Football Championship on Monday and announced an early decision on the important personnel issue for the tournament from June 14th to July 14th in Germany.
“The positive discussions expressed different points of view among the coaches. (…) UEFA has taken note of the different opinions and points of view and will make a final decision in the coming weeks,” said a statement after the team Workshop of the 24 European Championship participants on Monday in Düsseldorf.
“I’m more like 23”
Nagelsmann suggested a flexible solution as a compromise. “I think you can keep it open. You can name a maximum number of 26 and everyone can decide whether they want to take less,” said the national coach. He himself advocates a smaller squad so as not to have too many dissatisfied players.
“As far as squad hygiene and handling of players are concerned, in my opinion it shouldn’t be like it was at the World Cup, with several players sitting in the stands out of the 26. Then the ratio between satisfied and dissatisfied players simply isn’t right,” said Nagelsmann . “I’m generally more in favor of 23, but I can also understand all the arguments for 26.”
The Swiss national coach Murat Yakin made similar comments in Düsseldorf – the last German group opponent on June 23rd in Frankfurt. Austria’s German head coach Ralf Rangnick can also imagine such a flexible arrangement.
The Dutch bond coach Ronald Koeman brought up the discussion after the 1:2 in the test against the DFB team at the end of March and spoke out in favor of a squad size of 26 instead of the 23 players previously stipulated in the tournament rules. At the 2021 European Championship, the squad was expanded to 26 players due to the corona pandemic; at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the high stress in the middle of the season was the argument for more tournament players.