By DAN KARELL
Though qualifying for UEFA Euro 2016 won’t begin until September, the European governing body conducted the 53-team draw on Sunday morning.
The Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Germany, England, Greece, Russia, Italy, and Portugal were the top seeded teams in Group’s A through I, respectively, with the most interesting group off the bat looking like Group B. Belgium joined Bosnia and Herzegovina, in addition to Israel, Wales, Cyprus, and Andorra.
As hosts, France won’t take part in qualifying, though they will play friendly matches at home and away against each of the team’s in the five-nation Group I, which includes Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, and Albania.
For the first time in history, Gibraltar will take part in an official UEFA qualifying competition.
England was given a pretty comfortable group, ending up in Group E with Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, and San Marino.
Qualification for the tournament begins on Sept. 7 and runs through mid-October, 2015. The nine group winners, nine runners-up, and best third-place team will qualify to the Euro 2016 finals automatically, with the next eight third-place teams playing for the final four spots in the tournament.
Here’s a closer look at the Euro 2016 Draw:
GROUP A:Â Netherlands, Czech Republic, Turkey, Latvia, Iceland, Kazakhstan
GROUP B:Â Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Israel, Wales, Cyprus, Andorra
GROUP C:Â Spain, Ukraine, Slovakia, Belarus, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Luxembourg
GROUP D:Â Germany, Republic of Ireland, Poland, Scotland, Georgia, Gibraltar
GROUP E:Â England, Switzerland, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, San Marino
GROUP F:Â Greece, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Northern Ireland, Faroe Islands
GROUP G:Â Russia, Sweden, Austria, Montenegro, Moldova, Liechtenstein
GROUP H:Â Italy, Croatia, Norway, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Malta
GROUP I:Â Portugal, Denmark, Serbia, Armenia, Albania
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What do you think of this draw? Who got the easiest group? Who received the hardest? Which games are you most looking forward to?
Is France listed there?
2016 is Latvia’s year!
So Switzerland is seeded for the World Cup but isn’t seeded for the Euros. Way to go with that WC seeding…
This tournament is boring. Bring on the Gold Cup!
The England supporters will have some fun away matches. LOL.
Definatly going to be some low teams like Iceland, Wales, Slovenia, Norway, etc getting into the Euro’s but hey should make it fun for those teams who continously get over run during past Euro’s and WC qualifying… Sure the Euro would be more ‘high quality’ if they only let in 16 teams but so would the Gold Cup if we just did 8 teams..
Everyone should get a chance to qualify for the CC and WC..
Also, big fan of the scheduling. Finally some weekend games during fifa breaks! Having most of the world’s games on Fridays and Tuesdays isnt great for the working mans schedule!
Forget the Euro Draw, most interesting news is Vince McMahon and his WWE trying to buy EPL club Newcastle. I can only see awesomeness coming from this. Players enter to theme music? Referee gets distracted by hot WAG and then ball is run into goal rugbee style for controversial goal? Can he buy LA Galaxy please?
Made me laugh
More games equals more original TV programming to sell a bigger gate and less of a chance that a big country (i.e, one with lots of viewers and ticket buyers) will miss out. It will worsen the competition but what are mere fans to the suits that run UEFA.
As fans don’t we kind of want those big countries not to miss out?
Group C is obviously the easiest.
F is interesting cause most of those nations are solid no.2 qualifiying types. any of them could possibly win the top spot. would be funny to see Finland in the Euros.
D or H or I is the toughest.
GO SWEDEN
will 24 teams make the tournament stronger or weaker?
will we see more players scoring hat tricks against Gibraltar or San Marino or Estonia. I know it’s ridiculous that any of those 3 could qualify. but remember little Latvia qualified for euro 2004 and was trounced badly.
Probably weaker. It will certainly make qualification duller with more than half the teams qualifying.
Wont hurt qualifying but the actual tournament wont be as tough if most groups will advance 3/4 teams.
Of course it will hurt qualifying. For good teams the margin of error is going to be very forgiving. The best teams will have it wrapped up about half way through and will have no reason to play their top players late in the processes. The pressure will be a lot less.
This is basically a horrible idea driven by Plantini’s need to payback the countries that voted for him
Group a,d, and g seem more interesting to me. Czech, turkey, iceland and ireland,poland,scotland, and austria,sweden, montenegro, sweden all look like somewhat evenly matched good games
Seems there are 2 sides that will give England problems.
England will find a way to make this group look harder than it needs to be.
England the country is fantastic. England the football team is a giant exploding douchemissile.
England isn’t a country.
You sure?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_of_the_United_Kingdom
Solvina is always tough at home. Right?
unreal how Greece always manages to avoid a tough team in their group-time and time again…
Go Hungary!
great point. also ever notice how many times Denmark plays Portugal in groups.
they had them in 2010 WC qualifying and 2012 Euros and again in the 2012 Euro championship
Greece got Croatia a few years back , defeated 2-0 they keep coming first that’s why they avoid big teams .go hellas all the way euro2016 !!!!!!!