TEAMtalk guest blogger Adam Bate will be savouring next year's European Championship - because the 2016 tournament looks too flabby by far.

Make sure you enjoy Euro 2012. It will be the last European Championships contested in its current format.

The beautiful simplicity of a 16-nation tournament is to be abandoned for the tournament in France in 2016.

Two teams qualifying from a group of four and leading straight into the quarter-finals is a structure that ensures the competition retains an element of excitement throughout.

Instead, UEFA has decided to expand the Euros - meaning 24 nations will contest the finals in future.

UEFA bigwig Lennart Johansson claims: "It's a good thing, both in sporting and economic terms, if more countries have access to the tournament".

It's no surprise to see that economic reasons have played a part in this decision. No doubt the more inclusive nature of the new tournament will be a real vote-winner for the current regime too.

But this decision does little for the rhythm of a major tournament.

An exhausting 36 games will be played at Euro 2016 just to eliminate eight of the 24 teams - possibly the eight teams that wouldn't have qualified under the old system anyway, of course.

What's more, four of the six groups will only see one team sent home. It represents a depressingly stale beginning to a tournament - an unwelcome throwback to a system FIFA rightly abandoned after the 1994 World Cup.

But the problems do not begin and end with the finals themselves.

The qualifying process is also set to become a less challenging proposition for the better teams and as such the whole thing starts to feel like a huge waste of time.

In effect, this means that the top two in each group now qualify with the teams that finish third going into a play-off.

There's an obvious plus point - England, Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would all have made it to the Euro 2008 play-offs.

But 250 games will be played in order to decide which 25 of the 52 countries in UEFA will, at the very least, go through to a play-off. That's an awful lot of games to eliminate Cyprus, Malta, San Marino, Luxembourg and co.

There may be some tense battles between mid-ranking sides such as Austria and Bulgaria, but this will surely be offset by the fact that Spain could well secure qualification with a year to spare.

And herein lies the danger. With the championships themselves such a distant prospect, apathy often reigns supreme in the early matches.

For fans, booing of rival clubs' players and mild amusement at your own country's highly successful failures is not uncommon. After all, there is plenty of time for supporters of the top nations to hit the panic button and get behind the team further down the line.

As for the players, with easier qualifying campaigns, don't be surprised if they take extended sabbaticals from the national team.

It seems that, for UEFA, the quality of the football and the beauty of a successful tournament are only of peripheral concern.

Of course, it may well be that, as with the World Cup, we are heading inexorably towards a 32-team tournament and a 24-team system is the necessary stepping stone.

Mind you, are we then faced with the dull prospect of two years and several hundred qualifiers to decide which unlucky minnows don't make it to the 32 team European party?

It's worth repeating it - make sure you enjoy Euro 2012.

Follow Adam on Twitter at @ghostgoal and check out his blog at GhostGoal.>