NYON: European Championship organisers UEFA said on Thursday it will listen to national team coaches if they want bigger squads of 26 players instead of 23 for the tournament in Germany.

Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman said this week the number of injuries in modern football meant it was absurd to return to the traditional squad size of 23.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, increased 26-man squads were allowed by UEFA at Euro 2020, a delayed edition played in 2021, and at FIFA’s 2022 World Cup.

If players were isolated for health reasons, their replacements were already in camp and complying with the mandatory protocols.

UEFA decided last year on 23-player squads for Euro 2024.

It will host coaches and officials from the 24 teams in two weeks in Duesseldorf, Germany.

“A workshop with the participating teams will be held on April 8 and on that occasion UEFA will listen to the views of the coaches,” the European soccer body said. “Any idea in this respect will then be considered and assessed.”

Koeman wants his national federation to ask UEFA for an increase and noted this week “you have to deal more with injuries these days.”

“It is about the load carrying ability of the players,” Koeman said on Tuesday after his team’s 2-1 loss to Germany, suggesting host team coach Julian Nagelsmann agreed.

England coach Gareth Southgate said there had been a “little bit of talk amongst some of the coaches” to ask for 26.

Speaking after his side’s 2-2 draw with Belgium at Wembley, Southgate said he did not plan to pressure UEFA for an increase, though acknowledged the extra numbers would lessen the risk of selecting preferred players who carried injuries.

“It seems to be (settled at 23),” Southgate said. “There is one more UEFA meeting where there’s been a little bit of talk amongst some of the coaches about possibly increasing that.”

Southgate, who has previously said it is a “bigger skill to pick a 23”, was asked if he was in favour of a move to an expanded selection and said with a smile: “Well, given where we are now!

“We’ve got to make the best decisions with what we know and some of those currently are going to be medical decisions. And we’ve been able to get those right in the previous tournaments. We’ve been able to give people time, but with 23 that’s definitely more difficult.”

Previous expanded selections allowed Southgate to take a calculated gamble on the fitness of Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson at Euro 2020 as the pair recovered from injury.

The same went for Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips at the 2022 World Cup as they worked their way back to fitness, with injured duo Luke Shaw and Reece James potential beneficiaries if it goes to 26 this time.

It is unclear how many of the 24 coaches want a larger squad that would include more players likely not getting game time on the field.

Euro 2024 is from June 14-July 14 in 10 German cities.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024