We are in the midst of qualification for the 2020 European Championship.
It is going to be an interesting for tournament for three reasons. Firstly, the event will be played throughout Europe rather than having a host country. The tournament is scheduled to be held in 12 cities in 12 European countries, so no one nation is going to have an advantage in terms of playing at home.
Secondly, we could see some of the smaller nations taking part, who have not had a chance of qualifying in previous tournaments. Four teams from each Nations League division who failed to qualify via the usual qualification groups will meet in a playoff to decide which one will progress to the finals.
This includes Georgia, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Belarus, all four of which would have little chance of qualifying via the standard route.
The final reason why the 2020 European Championship is going to be very interesting is because there does not appear to be one clear favourite to win the competition.
According to the bookmakers, France are the favourites to win Euro 2020. As they won the 2018 World Cup, this makes sense but they are in a tough qualifying group which contains Turkey and Iceland. You would think France would have enough to come in the top two but there are no guarantees in football and Iceland and Turkey could push them close.
Next in the betting we come to England. There is little doubt England are going to qualify from their group and they have the Nations League to fall back on should they fail. England have a squad full of young, talented players and they could easily have reached the World Cup final in Russia. The English have to be seen as serious contenders for Euro 2020 and the final will be played at their home ground, Wembley.
There has been much talk about the golden generation of Belgium football and they will make another attempt to win a trophy next summer. Much like England, Belgium reached the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup only to lose by a single goal to France. With the likes of Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku at their peak, this has got to be the time Belgium reach the final or it will be a big disappointment.
However, we have already named three potential winners of the tournament and have yet to mention Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy and defending champions, Portugal.
All five of these nations will believe they have what it takes to win the 2020 European Championship and rightly so. On their day, they can beat anyone in Europe and the finals is going to be a very exciting tournament. Will one team emerge as they clear favourite or could we have a competition where it is open and any one of the above eight countries could lift the Henri Delaunay Trophy?