The draw for the UEFA Euro 2012 Championships – to be jointly hosted by neighbours Poland and Ukraine – will be held this Sunday at noon in the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw.
The fifty-one competing nations will be divided into nine groups. There will be six groups of six teams and three of five. All groups will contain only one nation from any one seeding pot.
The nine winners and the best runner-up from the nine groups will qualify directly for the final tournament in Poland and Ukraine. Both host countries have qualified automatically for the championships to be held in the summer of 2012. The eight remaining runners-up will compete in play-off matches for the remaining four places.
The Dutch squad has been placed in Pot 1 along with title defender Spain and seven other top teams. These nine countries will not meet in the qualifying rounds. Belgium is preparing itself for a tough draw. It has been assigned to Pot 4 and will be facing strong competition from Pots 1, 2 and 3. Belgium’s tricky starting position is a result of poor performance over the past few years.
The European Championship qualifications being held in these two Eastern European countries will be starting in September 2010 and will last thirteen months. The play-offs have been scheduled for November 2011.
Seeding Pots:
Pot 1: Spain (holders), Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, Russia
Pot 2: Greece, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, Denmark, Slovakia, Romania
Pot 3: Israel, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Pot 4: Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Belarus, Belgium, Wales, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus
Pot 5: Montenegro, Albania, Estonia, Georgia, Moldova, Iceland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein
Pot 6: Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Malta, Faeroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino
Tags: Euro 2012
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