Fifty national teams battle for 14 free spots at the UEFA EURO 2008™

Montreux. Five months prior to the kick-off of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ another major football event was enjoying being the centre of attraction. The draw for the qualifying pools of UEFA EURO 2008™ took place at the fashionable holiday resort of Montreux, on Lake Geneva, on January 27.

The German national team, the most successful continental team with title victories in 1972, 1980 and 1996, will meet the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Wales, Cyprus and San Marino in Pool D of the qualifications for the final round of the European Championship. The qualifiers will begin in August 2006, two months after the conclusion of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™.

Fifty national teams will battle for the 14 free spots in the final round, which will take place in Basle, Berne, Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, and Vienna, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Salzburg in Austria, between June 7-29, 2008. The two host teams automatically qualify for, what is, the second European Championships final tournament since 2000 to be held in two countries (Netherlands and Belgium). For Austria this means their national team will participate for the first time ever in a final UEFA European Championship™.

The teams were drawn, and divided into seven pools, by former internationals Stephane Chapuisat (Switzerland) and Andreas Herzog (Austria) at the Congress Centre of Montreux. Two former European champions will meet in Pool B -- Italy, the 1968 champions, and France, title holders in 1984 and 2000. Their opponents will be Ukraine, also participating like Italy and France in the 2006 FIFA World Cup™, Scotland, Lithuania, Georgia and the Faroe Islands.

The title holders from Greece were drawn in Pool C, together with Turkey, Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary, Moldova and Malta. At UEFA EURO 2008™ the trophy for the winners will no longer be the cup awarded to the European champions since 1960, and most recently in Lisbon to Greece as the sensational winners of UEFA EURO 2004™ in Portugal. Though the new Henri Delaunay Cup maintains the name and shape of the original trophy, it has a more modern and larger design.

UEFA EURO 2004 silver medallists, Portugal, are facing a difficult task in Pool A, consisting of eight teams, while the other groups involve seven. Portugal, Serbia and Montenegro, Poland – another three participants in the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ – will play Belgium, Finland, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan for the two places at UEFA EURO 2008™, and have the farthest distances to travel.

The winners and runners-up from each group will automatically qualify for the finals by the end of the qualifying round in November 2007. The European Football Association, UEFA, abolished the customary play-offs between runners-up. Thus the qualification has been made clearer. England, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Andorra play in Pool E. The 1992 European champions, Denmark, were drawn in Pool F, together with Spain, the 1964 title holders, Sweden, Latvia, Iceland, Northern Ireland and Liechtenstein. The Netherlands, the 1988 European champions, are the top team in Pool G playing against Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Belarus and Luxembourg.

Lennart Johansson, President of UEFA, seemed quite confident that the final round of the 13th European Championship will be even more successful than UEFA EURO 2004™ in Portugal. The Swede spoke of the “obligation and responsibility” to make the UEFA EURO 2008™  the best ever. “The finals of the 2004 UEFA European Championship™ in Portugal set new standards with regard to the quality of the matches, organisation and TV ratings”, Johansson said. An estimated 7.9 billion TV viewers watched the 31 games held in Portugal. UEFA are quite confident that these excellent results can be improved further.

Here you can find current results and standings...