France top seeds for EURO 2004™

France, the world and European champions, will be the top seeds among 50 nations to go into the hat for the draw for the EURO 2004™ qualifying round at the Europarque Congress Centre in Santa Maria da Feira, Porto on Friday.

Seeding system
The teams entering the qualifying competition draw will be seeded according to the national associations’ coefficient list, calculated on the basis of results achieved in the qualifying competitions for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the EURO 2000™.

Qualifying results
The coefficients are determined by dividing the total number of points obtained in the qualifying competitions of these two tournaments by the number of matches played. For Belgium and the Netherlands, who did not participate in the qualifying competition for EURO 2000™, only the qualifying matches for the 2002 World Cup will be considered.

Ten groups of five
The teams will be divided into ten groups of five teams each. The winners of each group will qualify directly for the final round in Portugal in 2004, while the ten group runners-up will compete in home-and-away play-off matches to determine the remaining five qualifiers.

Portugal hosts
The top ten seeds feature France, who as title holders are seeded first, followed by Sweden, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Italy, Belgium and Turkey. Portugal, as hosts, qualify automatically. The precise draw procedure will be decided by the UEFA National Teams Committee at its meeting in January.

Match dates
A total of 12 dates have been reserved for the qualifying matches in accordance with the international match calendar on which the national associations will have to stage their eight qualifying matches: 7/8 September 2002, 12/13 October 2002, 15/16 October 2002, 29/30 March 2003, 1/2 April 2003, 7/8 June 2003, 10/11 June 2003, 6/7 September 2003, 9/10 September 2003, 11/12 October 2003. The dates for the play-off matches have been set on 15/16 November 2003 and 18/19 November 2003.