Russia's exit and its impact on the Euros

A huge Russian fan poster during Russia-Poland game at Warsaw

When Dick Advocaat signed up for the task of guiding Russia two years ago, little would he have imagined about the manner in which they would exit the Euros. But the former Dutch national team coach, who will be returning to his native country to manage PSV Eindhoven after the Euros, was proud of his team’s performance in the competition. Proud he should be, because of the performances they exhibited with the exception of last night’s defeat to the 2004 Euro champions Greece, which resulted in a group stage exit from the competition.

Last night’s shock defeat by Greece and the subsequent exit raised many eyebrows. For a team that looked quite promising at the start of the competition, yesterday night’s defeat was the reason they exited due to a controversial UEFA Euro regulation on final group rankings, which was amended just before the championship in May this year.

The rules, which are stated below, show that first preference in matters of a tie is given to the head-to-head record i.e. criteria a) and then goal difference between the two teams i.e. criteria b). This rule was in place even before but its implications become clear when big teams exit the competition like this.

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:

a) Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;b) Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;c) Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;d) If, after having applied criteria a) to c), two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria a) to c) are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine the final rankings of the two teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria e) to i) apply in the order given;e) superior goal difference in all group matches;f) higher number of goals scored in all group matches;g) position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system (see annex I, paragraph 1.2.2);h) fair play conduct of the teams (final tournament);i) drawing of lots

(Source: UEFA.com)

In May 2012, an amendment was made (criteria d), shown in bold). This recent amendment does not make any huge difference, rather it just states a resolving criterion which is applied in the case the teams draw. According to criteria d) then, the superior goal difference rule of criteria e) is applied.

Should the head-to-head rule supersede the superior goal difference rule? Isn’t it fair to judge the team’s performance as a whole rather than against a single nation or by a single match. This topic is, of course, highly debatable given the stakes of football federations, national pride and player achievement that ride along with the Euro. Some people might opine that Russia brought this onto themselves by not coming back strongly in the last game, which although is the absolute truth, but looking at the bigger picture of the talent that the Euros bring onto the world stage, one feels sorry for a team like Russia.

Dzagoev scores their opening goal past Petr Cech

The last edition of the Euros in 2008 saw the rise of an attacking winger from Zenit St. Petersburg, who went on to become the national captain in this year’s edition. Yes, of course, I’m talking about Andrey Sergeyevich Arshavin. This time , it was deja vu all over again, as a promising 21-year old Alan Dzagoev from the town of Beslan wowed everybody with his performance and goals (joint top scorer). One might argue that had the ‘superior goal rule in all matches’ been in place ahead of every other rule, Russia would have been through and this Euro could turn out to be more interesting.

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