Imagine if the EURO 2024 finals had the presence of Lionel Messi and the Argentina team, what would things be like?

The European Football Federation invited an Argentine referee team including main referee Facundo Tello and two assistants, Gabriel Chade and Ezequiel Brailovsky, to participate in officiating matches in Germany. This move does not mean that Europe runs out of good referees to the point of having to invite outsiders.

In an increasingly flat open world and increasing globalization trends, UEFA’s invitation to Argentine referees is also timely and reasonable.

Euro needs competition, not expansion

But unfortunately, if the Argentines attending this Euro were players like Lionel Messi or Lautaro Martine, wouldn’t that be even better?

In recent days, the world’s top star players have been debating which playground is better and more competitive between the Euro and the World Cup. Kylian Mbappe said that the Euro is more competitive and tougher, while Messi said that the World Cup is the best.

Both Mbappe and Messi only talked about their feelings so it’s difficult to judge. And even with fans standing outside, everyone has different feelings.

However, it can be affirmed that everyone agrees that if Argentina and Messi participate in the Euro, this tournament will definitely be more attractive. It is not uncommon for a continental tournament to invite teams from outside the continent. Copa America regularly invites 2 away teams to participate to both increase the quality of the tournament and promote the image of the tournament.

It is also incorrect to say that inviting another team to the Euro finals is unfair to the teams participating in the qualifying round. The Gold Cup of North Central America also has to compete in qualifying rounds, but at the finals there are often invited teams participating. It could be a Brazilian guest to help improve the quality of the tournament, or it could be a guest from Korea, Qatar or South Africa to increase the tournament’s coverage.

Although Europe’s Euro has tradition and brand, organizers always want to improve to find ways to increase revenue. Because they want more television money, UEFA does not hesitate to increase the number of teams from 8 to 16 28 years ago and from 16 to 24 teams from Euro 2016.

Television money increased, but as a result, many small teams appeared in the Euro, diluting the quality of the tournament, such as Finland and North Macedonia in the previous tournament or Albania and Georgia in this year’s tournament. It is hard to imagine that a match at Euro 2020 with Austria against North Macedonia only attracted less than 10,000 spectators, and lost many matches in matches outside the top 5 European national leagues.

If Messi plays at the Euro, it is guaranteed that all of Argentina’s matches will be sold out

But if Messi appears in an Argentina shirt playing at the Euro as a guest, even if he meets the weakest team in the tournament, tickets will be sold out. That’s for sure.

Obviously, everyone can see that if UEFA invites quality away teams like Argentina or Brazil, even both teams to participate in the tournament, everyone will welcome them. Audiences, whether European or South American, all support it.

The member football federations in Europe have nothing to object to because the 22 spots for the Euro finals are still too many for them. Furthermore, when these two South American guests come to compete, the television money will certainly be higher and the money distributed to the member football federations will be more.

Put aside your pride

The European Football Federation is also not conservative. The fact that they agreed to let teams located in Asia like Israel before, and then the Central Asian team Kazakhstan join, shows the inherent openness of the Europeans.

The obstacle here is pride when neither South America nor Europe is willing to go down to invite each other first. Guests of Copa America in the past were often teams from the North Central America region and then teams in Asia such as Japan or Qatar, but absolutely no European teams.

However, pride cannot be frozen forever in the face of globalization and the need to change to make money. The fact that the two sides broke the ice when UEFA invited the Argentine referee team to participate in refereeing at Euro 2024 was the first breakthrough.

At the same time, the South Americans also invited Italian referee Maurizio Mariani to control the Copa America opening next week. When Europeans and South Americans put their egos down, inviting strong teams to each other’s tournaments will be very easy.

The South Americans themselves also found that their Copa America tournament was not going well, so they had to combine it with North Central America to do the same tournament this summer and do not know how the next tournament will be held. Europe can give them a solution.

In a world of cooperation, it is foreseeable that South America and Europe will join hands to elevate the two tournaments, and the bilateral relationship will be beneficial.

We can imagine Copa America 2035 with Portugal participating and Euro 2036 with Argentina appearing. At that time, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had hung up their shoes for a long time, but their son Ronaldo Jr (born in 2010) or Thiago Messi (2012) could completely represent the team in tournaments that their father had never played. into the field.