The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2016 final tournament.[1][2]
A total of 53 national teams participated in this qualifying process, with Gibraltar taking part for the first time. The draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis, Nice, on 23 February 2014.[3][4]
All UEFA member associations were eligible to compete in the qualifying competition, with the host team France qualifying directly to the finals tournament.[1] The other 53 teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams (Groups A–H) and one group of five teams (Group I).[6] The group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team (with the results against the sixth-placed team discarded) directly qualified to the finals. The eight remaining third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals.[7][8][9]
Seeding system
Sides were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, which were announced along with the draw procedure and final tournament match schedule after the 23–24 January Executive Committee meeting in Nyon.[7] For the qualifying group stage, the teams were seeded into six pots (Pots 1–5 with 9 teams and Pot 6 with 8 teams) for the qualifying group stage draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, with the title holders (Spain) automatically seeded into Pot 1. Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:
UEFA stated that nations with the largest markets in terms of contribution to the European Qualifiers revenue would be drawn into one of the groups containing six teams.[9] They included England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.[6] UEFA also stated in their regulations that "the teams drawn into the group of five teams will have France added to their group for the purpose of playing centralized friendlies".[9][10][11][12] However, these friendlies did not count in the qualifying group standings.[13][14]
For the play-offs the four ties were determined by draw, including the order of the two legs of each tie. The teams were seeded for the play-off draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings updated after the completion of the group stage. Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:
If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied:[9]
Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 4, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 4 were reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings.[a] If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 6 to 10 applied;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
Fair play conduct in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
For each play-off tie, the team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs qualified for the final tournament. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e., the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then thirty minutes of extra time was played, divided into two fifteen-minutes halves. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e., if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score was still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the tie was decided by penalty shoot-out.
Notes
^When there were two or more teams tied in points, criteria 1 to 4 were applied. After these criteria were applied, they could define the position of some of the teams involved, but not all of them. For example, if there was a three-way tie on points, the application of the first four criteria could only break the tie for one of the teams, leaving the other two teams still tied. In this case, the tiebreaking procedure was resumed, from the beginning, for those teams that were still tied.
Schedule
Official match ball of the UEFA Euro qualifiers
This was the first qualifying tournament after UEFA announced centralised rights deals for both UEFA Euro and FIFA World Cup qualifying. UEFA had proposed the "Week of Football" concept for the scheduling of qualifying matches:[15][16][17]
Matches took place from Thursday to Tuesday.
Kick-off times were largely set at 18:00 and 20:45 CET on Saturdays and Sundays, and 20:45 CET on Thursdays, Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays.
On double-header matchweeks, teams played on Thursday and Sunday, or Friday and Monday, or Saturday and Tuesday.
Matches in the same group were played on the same day.[9]
There were ten matchdays for the qualifying group stage, and two matchdays for the play-offs:[7]
Stage
Matchday
Dates
Qualifying group stage
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-offs
1st leg
12–14 November 2015
2nd leg
15–17 November 2015
Unlike previous qualifying campaigns where group fixtures were determined by negotiation between the national federations, UEFA themselves decided each group's fixture list, released the same day as the draw.[6][9]
Draw
The draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis, Nice, on 23 February 2014, 12:00 CET. Groups A–H each contain one team from each of Pots 1–6, while Group I contains one team from each of Pots 1–5. For television rights reasons, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands were drawn into groups of six teams. Before the draw UEFA confirmed that, for political reasons, Armenia would not be drawn against Azerbaijan (due to the dispute concerning territory of Nagorno-Karabakh) and Gibraltar would not be drawn against Spain (due to the disputed status of Gibraltar). France (Coeff: 30,992; Rank: 11), the 2016 tournament hosts, were partnered with the five-team Group I, allowing them to play friendlies against these countries on their 'spare' dates that did not count in the qualifying group standings.[18]
Seeding
The seeding pots were announced on 24 January 2014. The teams in bold qualified to the final tournament.[19][20]
^ abThe Serbia v Albania match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Albania, and Serbia were also deducted three points, after the match was abandoned at 0–0 because home fans invaded the pitch and attacked Albania players when a drone carried a pro-Albanian flag over the stadium.
Ranking of third-placed teams
The highest ranked third-placed team from the groups directly qualified for the tournament, while the remainder entered the play-offs. As Group I contained five teams and the rest contained six, matches against any sixth-placed team in each group were not included in this ranking. As a result, a total of eight matches played by each team count toward the purpose of the third-placed ranking table.
Turkey became the best third-placed team, after winning against Iceland in its last match, while at the same time Kazakhstan beat Latvia to finish fifth in Group A.[21]
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: Counting only matches against teams ranked first to fifth in the group, 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Away goals scored; 5) Lower disciplinary points total; 6) UEFA national team coefficient ranking; 7) Drawing of lots.
The eight remaining third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals. The teams were seeded for the play-off draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage. The draw for the play-offs was held on 18 October 2015, 11:20 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon.[22][23]
The first legs were played on 12–14 November, and the second legs were played on 15–17 November 2015. The four play-off winners (Ukraine, Sweden, Republic of Ireland and Hungary) qualified for the final tournament.
Poland's Robert Lewandowski scored 13 goals in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying round, equalling David Healy's record in 2008 for most goals in a qualifying campaign.[26]
There were 694 goals scored in 268 matches, for an average of 2.59 goals per match.[note 1]
UEFA unveiled the branding for the qualifiers on 15 April 2013. It shows a national jersey inside a heart, and represents Europe, honour and ambition. The same branding was also used for the European qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup.[27]
Robert Lewandowski (13 goals)
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