All clear for December EURO draw

The procedure for the UEFA EURO 2008™ final tournament draw in Lucerne, Switzerland, on 2 December was approved by the UEFA Executive Committee at its meeting in Istanbul today.

Holders Greece
Consequently, hosts Switzerland and Austria will be placed in groups A1 and B1 respectively. The other 14 nations will be split into four pots. Pot 1 will comprise the reigning European champions Greece if they qualify, as well as the team with the highest coefficient. The other countries will then be placed in the three remaining pots based on the coefficient obtained in the qualifying competition for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and for this EURO. The event will take place at the Konzert und Kongresszentrum in Lucerne, starting at 12.00CET.

Durban draw
The UEFA Executive Committee also decided that the draw for the European qualifying competition for the 2010 World Cup – to take place in Durban, South Africa, on 25 November – would be based on FIFA national team rankings. In accordance with the decision at its meeting in Heerenveen, Netherlands, in June, the format for the European qualifiers will be eight groups of six teams, and one group of five. The nine group winners will qualify directly, with the best eight runners-up featuring in home and away play-off matches for the remaining four places.