Well, we haven’t even gone through the inevitable crushing and traumatic disappointment of the World Cup this summer yet, but it’s already time to take a peak further round the corner with the qualifying draw for EURO 2016 set to come up on the 23rd of February. The tournament seeing a new format in two years time as we go from the normal 16 teams to a hefty 24 in the finals, with those teams then divided into six groups. That meaning we have the ridiculous scenario that only one third of the sides competing will fall by the wayside after the group stages.
To get to those finals in France though you have to get through the qualifying process first, and of course with 24 places to go for now making it through that has become a lot easier, as with nine groups the top two will immediately qualify alongside the best third placed team. The remaining eight third placed teams then fighting it out in the play-offs for the four finals spots left, with hosts France automatically there, although just to make things even more complicated France will be added to the one group of five after the draw in order to play friendly matches against those five teams.
So, if you’re still with me we’ve got 54 countries taking part, although only 53 of them are officially competing and they are divided into eight groups of six and one group of five. Here’s a new one I’ve just noticed this time around as well, I don’t know if it has happened before but it certainly adds another string to the bow that television runs football these days as, due to the centralisation of television rights by UEFA, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Spain all have to be in one of the groups of six, that meaning that either Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, Portugal or Russia will have to be in the group of five (erm, sorry, six with France).
Those nine teams then are the top seeds and are in Pot 1 for the draw, while Pot 2 contains Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Ukraine, and Pot 3 has in it Austria, Israel, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. Further down the seedings meanwhile Pot 4 comprises of Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Montenegro, Scotland and Wales, while in Pot 5 are Albania, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Iceland, Lithuania, Moldova and Northern Ireland, and Pot 6 brings up the rear containing Andorra, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta and San Marino.
With new boys Gibraltar in there, who did manage a creditable 0-0 draw with Slovakia in a November friendly match, it means there is another aspect to the draw now as for political reasons they can’t be drawn in the same group as Spain, that having already been and still is the case for Armenia and Azerbaijan, with the two countries still involved in a bitter dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is in Azerbaijan but has an ethnic Armenian majority population.
The calendar for the qualifying campaign, which runs from September 2014 to October 2015, is a touch different as well as each round of games will take place during a ‘Week of Football’ concept, which all sounds very exciting doesn’t it. Matches will now take place between a Thursday and Tuesday and will kick off mainly at 5pm and 7.45pm our time on Saturdays and Sundays and 7.45pm on Thursdays, Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays. The split for double-header matchweeks meanwhile seeing teams play on a Thursday/Sunday, Friday/Monday or Saturday/Tuesday basis.
UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino saying: “The fact we spread the European Qualifiers over several days as opposed to all teams playing on the same day will ensure a better visibility for the competition. Each day of the 'Week of Football' will have eight to ten matches as opposed to 20–30 matches on the same day." That will of course be better for television rights and therefore UEFA revenue, with the qualifying draw itself being televised of course when it takes place at lunchtime in the Palais des Congrès Acropolis convention centre in Nice two weeks on Sunday.