Sentence examples for championship expanded from inspiring English sources

In France, football's European Championship – expanded from 16 to 24 teams for the first time – was supposed to be a feelgood celebration but will now take place under a heavy security blanket after the Paris attacks.

Infantino's watch has also seen the European championship expanded from 16 to 24 teams while the innovative move of staging the 2020 tournament in 13 cities around Europe rather than a single host nation.

The nine group winners and the runners-up with the best record against the top five sides in their group qualify directly for the final tournament, the last before the championship is expanded to 24 teams in 2016 in France.

When Parks landed his third penalty, Ireland were ten points down with half an hour on the clock, staring at their first home defeat by Scotland since the championship was expanded.

Following their World Cup success on home soil, New Zealand can complete a clean-sweep in the inaugural Rugby Championship, the expanded Tri-Nations, when they face South Africa in Pretoria on Saturday.

The Five Nations Championship was expanded in 2000 to include Italy.

Now it could be argued their best bet is to wait until the European Championship finals expands to 24 teams, for the France 2016 event.

In 1969, baseball added the league championship series, which expanded to a best-of-seven format in 1985.

When it was announced that France would host the first European Championship to be expanded from 16 to 24 teams, many fans across the continent rubbed their hands at the prospect.

The league that was supposed to represent some combination of cakewalk and graveyard for Oldham and Rochdale Hornets, the two traditional clubs who found themselves excluded from the expanded Championship proper, and therefore forced to travel to all sorts of unlikely corners of the kingdom, from Gateshead to Neath, Wrexham to Hemel.

They did not manage to emulate Alain Sutter and the class of 94 in terms of the result or performance but, in this expanded championship, where so few teams fall at the group phase, the draw – on the back of their 1-0 victoverover Albania last Saturday – ought to be enough to send them through.