MALTA IN POT SIX FOR SUNDAY'S EURO 2016

When the seedings for the Euro 2016 Champoinships were announced by UEFA on the 24th January Malta was placed in Pot Six alongside newcomers Gibraltar and six other nations, Andorra, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and San Marino.  The other 45 of the 53 teams in the pots, excluding hosts France, will form the other seedings were divided into five pots of nine teams each. The top seeds in Pot One will consist of the teams with the best coefficient based the 2010-12 Euro Championship, and the World Cup 2014 qualifiers. The pot will thus include 2012 Euro Champions holders, Spain. Bosnia Herzegovina, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Russia complete the top list. The other nations will form part of the five remaining pots according to their respective rankings. There will be eight groups of six teams each and one of five teams, with automatic qualfiers, France, being placed in the latter group, but who will only be participating in friendly matches against teams from this same group.. The top two in each group and the best third-placed team will qualify directly for the Euro Finals alongside France. The other eight teams finishing third will enter the play-off stages. The best runner-up will be determined on the results obtained against the other teams in the group except the bottom-placed team. This will ensure a level-playing field for the group with five nations. The match programme has been revised, with a new ‘Week of Football’ replacing the usual Friday-Tuesday double-header of qualifying ties. Matches will now be played from Thursday to Tuesday with different kick-off times according to match days. It is to be noted that due to political considerations Spain will be separated from Gibraltar. Likewise Armenia and Azerbaijan. The UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying draw starts at 12.00CET at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis in Nice on Sunday 23 February 2014.   Expected draw pots: Pot 1: Bosnia-Herzegovina, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain.Pot 2: Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine.Pot 3: Austria, Israel, Montenegro, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey.Pot 4: Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Scotland, Wales.Pot 5: Albania, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Northern Ireland.Pot 6: Andorra, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, San Marino.  Qualifying match dates September 7-9, 2014October 9-11, 2014October 12-14, 2014November 14-16, 2014March 27-29, 2015June 12-14, 2015September 3-5, 2015September 6-8, 2015