Euro2004 Draw

[James]

is on you'll all be pleased to know is on tomorrow at 12CET or 11am for most of ye / 6am for me

draw live on eurosport or also can be "enjoyed" on eufa.com

[James]

Green light for EURO 2004™ draw procedure
Wednesday 23 January 2002
The UEFA Executive Committee has approved the draw procedure for Friday's EURO 2004™ qualifying competition draw at Europarque in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal. The committee gave the green light to the procedure on the opening day of its two-day meeting in Porto on Wednesday.

Ten groups of five teams
Fifty of the 51 UEFA member associations will be included in the draw, with Portugal qualifying automatically for the final round as EURO 2004™ hosts. Under the procedure, the EURO 2004™ qualifying competition will be staged in ten groups of five teams each.

Five different pots
The 50 associations have been divided into five different pots (A to E), each containing ten teams. Starting with pot E and ending with pot A, the competing teams will be divided into Groups 1 to 10 in the order in which they are drawn. The ten teams in pot E will be the first drawn into the ten groups, the ten teams in pot D will be the next allocated a group, and so forth.

France top seeds
Current European champions France are automatically the top seeds, while the other associations taking part in the qualifying competition have been classified on the basis of their results in the qualifying competitions for EURO 2000™ and the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

International dates
EURO 2004™ qualifying competition matches must be played on the ten international match dates between September 2002 and October 2003. In the event where associations are unable to agree on the order of their matches within 60 days of the draw, matches will be staged according to a standard fixture list drawn up by UEFA.

Sixteen-team final round
The EURO 2004™ final round, which takes place in Portugal between 12 June and 4 July 2004, will feature 16 teams. The Portuguese hosts will be joined by 15 associations from the qualifying competition - the ten group winners, who will qualify directly, and five other teams from among the ten group runners-up, who will contest play-offs on a two-leg home-and-away basis in November 2003.

[James]

wonderfully put by uefa.com...i thought this was about something completely different..but how and ever Ireland are top seeds at the end of the day

Pot allocation
The countries taking part in the qualifying competition have been allocated to the following pots:
Pot A: France (reigning champions), Sweden, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Italy, Belgium, Turkey
Pot B: Russia, Croatia, Denmark, Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Poland, England, Slovenia, Ukraine, Scotland
Pot C: Austria, Norway, Slovakia, Israel, Switzerland, Iceland, Bulgaria, Finland, Greece, Hungary
Pot D: Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Wales, Estonia, Latvia, Northern Ireland, Georgia, FYR Macedonia, Lithuania
Pot E: Armenia, Moldova, Albania, Faroe Islands, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Malta, Luxembourg, Andorra


Easiest Group time

Ireland
Scotland
Iceland
Estonia/Latvia
San Marino

Gift

[Éanna]

Best possible group:
Ireland
Ukraine\Scotland
Finland
Cyprus\Wales
Faroe Islands

would suit me fine.

[Éanna]

a trip to latvia would be nice though, wouldn't it!

[Neil]

How about:

Ireland
England
Norway
Norn Iron
Faroe Islands

for the most unnattractive group of all-time. And a nightmare for supporters.

[Éanna]

yeah that'd be easy enough neil.

[pete]

Hows about:

Travelling supporters nightmare!!!!:
Ireland
Yugoslavia
Israel
Georgia
Azerbaijan

Group of GBH(none hard enough for death tag):
France
England
Norway (just shows no really hard teams from 3rd seeds)
Belarus
Moldova

[Éanna]

Iwant group 4. lativa San Marino and Hungary. Should be grand and 2 makeable away trips- latvia & San Marino.

[jbrazil]

ireland
russia
switzerland
georia
albania

[pete]

Group 1
France, Slovenia, Israel, Cyprus, Malta

Group 2
Romania, Denmark, Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg

Group 3
Czech Republic, Holland, Austria, Belarus, Moldova

Group 4
Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, San Marino

Group 5
Germany, Scotland, Iceland, Lithuania, Faroe Islands

Group 6
Spain, Ukraine, Greece, Northern Ireland, Armenia

Group 7
Turkey, England, Slovakia, Macedonia FYR, Liechtenstein

Group 8
Belgium, Croatia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Andorra

Group 9
Italy, Yugoslavia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan

Group 10
Rep Ireland, Russia, Switzerland, Georgia, Albania

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No real easy draws in there i think & probably no real hard ones either. Wonder if it will have affect on how we approach upcoming friendly to Russia?

[Seanie]

Tough enough draw: Switzerland could be tricky and I don't fancy the away trips to Georgia or Albania. But if we can continue our World Cup qualifying form we should top the group.

[Gary]

Well at least we avoided the dutch.

[James]

Ok look how the so called "powerful" nations of europ did

Germany: very nice group, can see them winning every game even with what is a relatively poor german side

Italy: yugo's eh not the worst of em, but the others are pish

France: easy peasy

England: fooking easy draw for a second seeded team IMO, as they avoid any of the other powerful/political euro nations

[Éanna]

Originally posted by James
Ok look how the so called "powerful" nations of europ did

you're not suggesting any kind of a conspiracy there are you?!