UEFA announce seeds for Euro 2004 draw
( 2001-11-24 15:40 ) (7 )

World champions France are top seeds for the draw for the 2004 European Championships in Portugal, the game's European governing body UEFA announced Friday.

UEFA will hold the draw for the qualifying matches on January 25 2002 in Porto with Portugal already qualified for the championships as hosts.

The remaining teams for the 16-team tournament will be decided by 10 groups of five teams with the winners of each group qualifying for the championships.

The second-placed team from each group will play a two-legged playoff to decide the remaining five places.

Dates underlined for international qualifiers are: September 7/8, 2002; October 12/13, 2002; October 15/16, 2002; March 29/30, 2003; April 1/2, 2003; June 7/8, 2003; June 10/11, 2003; Septmber 6/7, 2003; September 9/10, 2003; October 11/12, 2003.

Play-off fixtures are scheduled for November 15/16 and 18/19, 2003.

Seeds for the draw will be decided according to national associations' coefficient list on the basis of results achieved in the qualifying competitions for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2000.

Seeds

1. France 2,100, 2. Sweden 2,667, 3. Spain 2,563, 4. Czech Republic 2,500, 5. Germany 2,250, 6. Republic of Ireland 2,222, 7. Romania 2,222, 8. Italy 2,188, 9. Belgium 2,125, 10. Turkey 2,111, 11. Russia 2,100, 12. Croatia 2,063, 13. Denmark 2,000, 14. Netherlands 2,000, 15. Yugoslavia 2,000, 16. Poland 1,889, 17. England 1,875, 18. Slovenia 1,850, 19. Ukraine 1,850, 20. Scotland 1,833