UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying draw procedure approved

53 participating teams to be drawn into nine qualifying groups

The UEFA Executive Committee has today approved the draw procedure for the forthcoming UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying competition draw at its meeting at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.

The 53 participating teams involved in the draw, which takes place in Nice, France on 23 February 2014 at 12.00CET, have been split into six pots on the basis of their coefficient, which is based on results obtained in the 2010 FIFA World Cup (qualifying and final tournament), UEFA EURO 2012 (qualifying and final tournament) and 2014 FIFA World Cup (qualifying competition, including play-offs), with these competitions given a weighting of 20%, 40% and 40% respectively.

The participating teams will be drawn into nine groups: eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The detailed draw procedure and seeding pots can be accessed here: http://uefa.to/1eXkHCo

The teams drawn into the group of five teams will have France added to their group, for the purpose of playing centralised friendlies in accordance with the ’Week of Football’ match schedule. This scheduling format for the European Qualifiers for UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup involves mQtches taking place from Thursday to Tuesday. Kick-off times will be largely set at 18.00CET and 20.45CET on Saturdays and Sundays and 20.45CET for Thursdays, Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays. On double-header matchweeks, teams will play on Thursday and Sunday or Friday and Monday or Saturday and Tuesday.

The nine group-winners, the nine runners-up and the best third-placed team will qualify directly for the UEFA EURO 2016 final round. The eight remaining third-placed teams will contest home-and-away play-off matches to determine the remaining four teams to qualify for the final tournament.