Steve McManaman exclusive: How did UEFA get Euro 2016 so wrong?

So Euro 2016 is at an end (at last!) and let’s be honest, most of the 51 games we witnessed lacked intrigue, excitement and any real semblance of quality.

The pretty poor final that was served up as Portugal beat France in Paris on Sunday was a fitting way to end a tournament that struggled to catch fire and had far too many uninspiring games.

I like football to be exciting because let’s not forget, this is part of the entertainment business and yet, most of the time what we have been served up over the last month has been anything but.

The France v Germany semi-final was the one game that you will remember as having a bit of genuine class on show and yet even then, the team that ran out as winners played on the back foot, surrendered possession and tried to hit their opponents on the break.

Now I ask you this: is that kind kind of negative football a spectacle we want to see? I don’t think so.

You look forward to these big tournaments in the hope of seeing great goals, excitement and something to get you off your seat but there were several reasons why Euro 2016 didn’t take off as we all hoped it might.

The addition of eight more teams always had the potential to dilute the quality on show and that is what transpired, so while it was nice for nations like the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to get a chance to play in the finals, the result was a set of group matches that struggled to ignite.

UEFA highlight the impact of Wales and Iceland as evidence that their extended format for the European Championships was a success, but they would have qualified if this was just a 16-team tournament and they would also have made it through the group phase as well.

So UEFA’s argument that the 24-team tournament gave the chance for a Cinderella story or two to emerge does not stack up.

In fact, the Cinderella story of this tournament is Portugal because they finished third in their group behind Hungary and Iceland and would have been heading home in disgrace if this tournament was played over the same format as recent Euro finals.

Instead, Cristiano Ronaldo and his pals were offered a back door route to the much easier side of the draw for the knock-out phase after failing to win any of their group games and recorded their only win inside 90 minutes when they beat Wales in the semi-finals.

Portugal are an average team and didn’t impress me at any point in their seven matches, but when UEFA set up their competition in a way that meant three 0-0 draws in the group stages may set you on your way to victory, we should not be surprised by the quality of the show we have just witnessed.

The final story of Euro 2016 saw a striker who could not get a game for Swansea last season blasting home a 30-yard effort to beat a host nation who also flattered to deceive despite being handed a very comfortable draw from first to last.

I was chatting to Robbie Fowler, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and few others coming back from France and we were all a little bemused by the final act of the competition. How on earth did a Portugal team without their injured talisman Ronaldo end up being crowned as European champions?

The answer to that question may lie in the less than edifying reality that Euro 2016 was not the great showpiece for European football and when we try and place it in the list of major tournaments over recent years, it will be right up their with the 1990 World Cup and Euro 2004 as the worst international tournament we have seen.

All credit to Portugal for finding a way to win, but none of us are going to remember Euro 2016 for too long.