Euro 2016 Qualifications

[overseasTOON]

The whole shebang kicks off this coming weekend as 53 teams battle it out to be one of 23 nations taking part with France on the 10 June 2016.

This tournament will be the biggest European Championships in history with 24 competing teams instead of the usual 16 so nations on the fringes of almost qualifying every tournament (yes, you Scotland) should finally be able to make a competitive bow in a renowned tournament.


The match days for qualifying are:

Matchday - Date
Matchday 1 - 7–9 September 2014
Matchday 2 - 9–11 October 2014
Matchday 3 - 12–14 October 2014
Matchday 4 - 14–16 November 2014
Matchday 5 - 27–29 March 2015
Matchday 6 - 12–14 June 2015
Matchday 7 - 3–5 September 2015
Matchday 8 - 6–8 September 2015
Matchday 9 - 8–10 October 2015
Matchday 10 - 11–13 October 2015
Play-off 1st leg - 12–14 November 2015
Play-off 2nd leg -15–17 November 2015

Groups are:

A:

Netherlands
Czech Republic
Turkey
Latvia
Iceland
Kazakhstan

B:

Bosnia-Herzegovina
Belgium
Israel
Wales
Cyprus
Andorra

C:

Spain
Ukraine
Slovakia
Belarus
Macedonia
Luxembourg

D:

Germany
Republic of Ireland
Poland
Scotland
Georgia
Gibraltar

E:

England
Switzerland
Slovenia
Estonia
Lithuania
San Marino

F:

Greece
Hungary
Romania
Finland
Northern Ireland
Faroe Islands

G:

Russia
Sweden
Austria
Montenegro
Moldova
Liechtenstein


H:

Italy
Croatia
Norway
Bulgaria
Azerbaijan
Malta


I:

Portugal
Denmark
Serbia
Armenia
Albania

[tomtom94]

In between this and the next World Cup and with their squad I'd say Wales are in with their best chance they'll get of qualifying for a major tournament for a while. Tough to beat both Bosnia and the improving Belgium though.

As for England, we know they'll be s***, I expect Hodgson will be sacked halfway through after the FA realise they haven't met their moron quota for the first quarter, Rooney will take over as player-manager, and England will once again break new ground in the field of s**** football.

[Remember Colo]

Group F is an awful group, wow.

[Lidl]

Finland finally get a promising group. Please let this be the year they actually manage to qualify for a tournament

[MultipleJesuses]

Group F is an awful group, wow.

Probably the easiest group Northern Ireland have ever had and there's still no chance of us qualifying.

[jpg]

Can someone explain the new qualification process as I really cannot be bothered to look it up

[tomtom94]

Can someone explain the new qualification process as I really cannot be bothered to look it up

Ask and you shall receive. From 53 nations, there are 24 spots:
Hosts automatically qualify (1)
Group WINNERS (10) and RUNNERS-UP all qualify (19)
At this point, results against any team placed sixth in the six-team groups are discarded, to even it up with the one awkward group that only has five teams
The BEST THIRD-PLACED TEAM (ranked, in order, by points/goal difference/goals scored/away goals/fair play/coefficient) directly qualifies (20)
The four winners of the THIRD-PLACED PLAY-OFFs (seeded by national coefficient with an 80% bias towards results in this round of qualification and the last World Cup) then fill the last four qualification spots (24)

And then Russia will declare its annexation of Ukraine and f*** everything up completely

[Holystone...]

Ffs. We're up against pub teams with a population of Carlisle. Disgrace if we don't stroll qualification.

[bodacious benny]

It's a complete joke that so many teams make it to euro 2016. It should be the best teams.

[Wedge Head Tiote]

It's a complete joke that so many teams make it to euro 2016. It should be the best teams.

This, for me what used to set it apart from the world cup was that the general quality was higher, and there were fewer pointless games. With this expansion it's just ruining all that.

[krully]

Group F is an awful group, wow.

Probably the easiest group Northern Ireland have ever had and there's still no chance of us qualifying.

dont worry you can always follow Best Ireland
although looking at our group < erk >

[Micky Quim]

Woop! Woop. Cannot get excited

[Don Sholeone]

It's a complete joke that so many teams make it to euro 2016. It should be the best teams.

Got to disagree, football is a global sport for everyone, not just the elite, its great that people from San Marino get to play against some of the worlds best footballers, to make it elite would be like saying the fa cup and league cup should just be premier league and championship teams.

Football brings people together to deny opportunity just based on them not having a nation capable of competing at the highest levels would be wrong and go against the spirt of the sport.

[tomtom94]

I like having more teams because I like rooting for the underdog. Plus, an appearance at a major tournament might be a big boost to football in one of the poorer nations. Guess it all comes down to personal preference, though writing it off on the basis that 8 extra teams qualify seems a bit harsh

[TJR]

It's a complete joke that so many teams make it to euro 2016. It should be the best teams.

This. It devalues the competition having loads of s**** teams in. It was fine how it was. All the awful teams still got to enter qualifying so theyw erbt being discluded. Now though the group stage of the finals will be far to weak which is a shame.

[Wedge Head Tiote]

Plus 24 teams is such a stupid number, how's it going to work?

[MultipleJesuses]

Probably the easiest group Northern Ireland have ever had and there's still no chance of us qualifying.

dont worry you can always follow Best Ireland
although looking at our group < erk >

I'm hoping to go to the Aviva for when Germany come to town but I honestly can't see either North or South having a hope in hell.

[Colly]

Plus 24 teams is such a stupid number, how's it going to work?

Badly, just like the World Cup.

[bodacious benny]

ROI and NI both win with late goals - 3 points alone should be enough to secure qualification this time

[Shadowthrone]

Come on Scotland