The tournament will be held in Germany
On Sunday, the German city of Frankfurt will witness the official drawing ceremony for the teams participating in the European Championship qualifiers, Euro 2024.
Of the 55 member teams of the European Union, UEFA, 53 teams will know the groups in which they will compete, as the host team, Germany, guarantees participation, while Russia has been excluded, due to its invasion of Ukraine.
At least 12 teams were included in the play-off round of the qualifiers, following their results in the European Nations League.
The results of the European Nations League also determined the position of the participating teams in the qualifying groups, and the heads of these groups.
How is the lottery done?
There will be 10 groups in the first stage of the qualifiers, of which 7 will include 5 teams, and the other three will contain 6 teams. Each team from the European Nations League semi-finals will occupy the top of one of the small groups, namely, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Croatia.
Two teams from each group qualify directly for the finals, in addition to the host country, bringing the number to 21 teams, and the remaining 3 places for the teams to qualify through the European Nations League.
Qualifiers will start on the 23rd of March / March 2023, ending on the twenty-first of November / November 2023.
The drawing will take place following distributing the teams according to the levels, into 7 containers as follows:
UEFA Nations League containerNetherlands – Croatia – Spain – Italy.
first containerDenmark – Portugal – Belgium – Hungary – Switzerland – Poland.
second containerFrance – Austria – Czech Republic – England – Wales – Scotland – Finland – Israel – Bosnia and Herzegovina – Serbia.
third containerUkraine – Iceland – Norway – Slovenia – Republic of Ireland – Albania – Montenegro – Romania – Sweden – Armenia.
container Fourth: Georgia– Greece – Turkey – Kazakhstan – Luxembourg – Azerbaijan – Kosovo – Bulgaria – Faroe Islands – North Macedonia.
Fifth containerSlovakia – Northern Ireland – Cyprus – Belarus – Lithuania – Gibraltar – Estonia – Latvia – Moldova – Malta.
Sixth container: Andorra – San Marino – Liechtenstein.
The draw saw some guidance, to prevent some teams from falling into the same group, such as Armenia and Azerbaijan, in addition to Belarus and Ukraine, for political reasons.
The same reasons led to the expulsion of Gibraltar from Spain, Kosovo from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Serbia.
Also, only two Nordic teams were allowed to fall into the same group due to the extremely cold weather conditions and the intensity of the ice in these countries.
Also, due to the geographical location, of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Iceland, on the edge of the continent, the draw will not allow any of them, with more than one team, to fall to one of the countries on the other side of the continent.
The twelve teams that topped the groups, at Levels A, B and C, in the Nations League, will secure at least a place in the qualifying play-off round, depending on their results.
