RobtheAggie
10 Jul 2003, 11:53 AM
From UEFA:
"Following FIFA'S recent decision to retain a 32-team finals tournament for the World Cup, the UEFA Executive Committee said it proposed enlarging the qualifying groups for the 2006 tournament in Germany, in line with requests received from national associations.
The committee agreed a proposal for three groups of seven nations and five of six, from which the eight group winners will qualify automatically together with the two best runners-up. The remaining three places in UEFA's 13 qualifying slots for the finals will be decided by play-offs between the six other group runners-up.
He said the major European nations, including Italy, France, Spain and England, would most likely be seeded and separated among the groups of six."
How does this affect Switzerland and Austria? Is this a good thing or a bad one? The Euro Qualfying is a moot point because both nations qualify for Euro 2008.
The same principle, of trying to provide more meaningful games for the national associations, was applied to the qualifying system for the 2008 European finals to be hosted jointly by Austria and Switzerland.
This resulted in a proposed format based on one group of eight teams and six groups of seven to produce 14 qualifiers, the seven group winners and the seven runners-up. The two host nations make the total 16 teams in the finals.
"Following FIFA'S recent decision to retain a 32-team finals tournament for the World Cup, the UEFA Executive Committee said it proposed enlarging the qualifying groups for the 2006 tournament in Germany, in line with requests received from national associations.
The committee agreed a proposal for three groups of seven nations and five of six, from which the eight group winners will qualify automatically together with the two best runners-up. The remaining three places in UEFA's 13 qualifying slots for the finals will be decided by play-offs between the six other group runners-up.
He said the major European nations, including Italy, France, Spain and England, would most likely be seeded and separated among the groups of six."
How does this affect Switzerland and Austria? Is this a good thing or a bad one? The Euro Qualfying is a moot point because both nations qualify for Euro 2008.
The same principle, of trying to provide more meaningful games for the national associations, was applied to the qualifying system for the 2008 European finals to be hosted jointly by Austria and Switzerland.
This resulted in a proposed format based on one group of eight teams and six groups of seven to produce 14 qualifiers, the seven group winners and the seven runners-up. The two host nations make the total 16 teams in the finals.