On Sunday, October 9 in Frankfurt am Main, the draw for the qualification groups of the Euro 2024 tournament will take place. The ceremony will start at 13:00 Kyiv time. The national team of Ukraine will also learn its opponents. A live broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of the Ukrainian Football Association.

On September 27, the Ukrainian team completed their participation in the Nations League 2022/2023 by securing second place in Group 1 of League B. As a result, our national team ended up at the 22nd position in the overall Nations League ranking, which sent them to the third pot for the Euro-2024 qualifying draw.

The procedure will have these key moments:

— Germany, the host association of Euro 2024, automatically qualifies for the final tournament and does not participate in the qualifying draw;

— all Russian teams are currently excluded according to the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee on February 28, 2022, which was further confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on July 15, 7 2022. Therefore, Russia is not included in the Euro-2024 qualifying draw;

— 53 national associations will participate in the qualification draw, which will divide participants into ten groups (seven groups of five teams and three groups of six teams);

— 10 group winners and 10 teams that finish second will advance to the final tournament. The holders of another three tickets will be determined in a playoff, which will take place in March 2024;

— the 53 participating teams will be seeded according to the overall UEFA Nations League ranking for 2022/2023 and divided into seven pots;

— Ukraine and Belarus national teams will be separated before the qualifying draw.

Details of classification

The so-called VIP pot UNL includes winners of League A groups (this allows Final Four participants to be placed in groups with five teams), and the first pot — six next highest-ranked national teams according to the Nations League ranking (excluding Germany, the host of Euro 2024). These ten teams will lead the qualifying groups for Euro-2024.

The overall Nations League ranking is calculated as follows: group winners in League A have numbers 1—4, second-placed teams — 5—8, third-placed teams — 9—12, fourth-placed teams — 13—16, group winners in League B — 17—20 and so on. However, note that due to Germany and Russia's disqualification for the Euro-2024 draw, this order will shift.

Thus, in this case, national teams with positions from 12th to 21st in the ranking entered the second pot, from 22nd to 31st — into the third, from 33rd to 42nd — into the fourth, from 43rd to 52nd — into the fifth and from 53rd to 55th — into the sixth.

The best among those who secured identical positions in their groups were determined by points, goal difference, number of goals scored, away goals scored, number of wins, away wins, fair play points, UEFA coefficient.

Photo uefa.com

Pot composition before the Euro-2024 qualifying draw

Pot UNL

Netherlands, Croatia, Spain, Italy

Pot 1

Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland, Poland

Pot 2

France, Austria, Czech Republic, England, Wales, Israel, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Scotland, Finland

Pot 3

Ukraine, Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, Ireland, Albania, Montenegro, Romania, Sweden, Armenia

Pot 4

Georgia, Greece, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, North Macedonia

Pot 5

Slovakia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Belarus, Lithuania, Gibraltar, Estonia, Latvia, Moldova, Malta

Pot 6

Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein

During the ceremony, UEFA will also take into account several other factors regarding participants — political, geographical and organizational.

Tournament calendar

The Euro 2024 qualification will take place in ten windows from March to November 2023 (March 23-25 and 26-28, June 16-17 and 19-20, September 7-9 and 10-12, October 12-14 and 15-17, November 16-18 and 19-21). Two best teams from each group will receive tickets to the final tournament featuring 24 teams, with Germany already waiting. The fate of another three spots will be decided in Nations League playoffs on March 21st and 26th, 2024.

Playoff format

The Nations League/Euro-2024 playoff will be held under a knockout system (two semi-finals and a final) in three divisions — Leagues A, B, and C. If the group winner of the Nations League has already qualified for Euro 2024 through this tournament's qualification, its place in the playoffs goes to the next highest-ranked team in that division. If there are fewer than four teams left who can play in the knockout matches, a spot will be given by the league below with consideration of the overall Nations League ranking (the best team from League D has priority). Thus, each of the three playoffs will have its own winner, which will become a participant in Euro-2024.

The draw for the final tournament of the European Championship will take place in December 2023, and the event itself — from June 14 to July 14, 2024.