HajdukSplit
Registered User
The draw for Euro 2024 is set to take place this Saturday (December 2) at 18:00 (CET) in Hamburg. The official pots have been out since the completion of qualifying and UEFA uses a system where they strictly looked at qualifying results for the seeding with group winners getting the benefit of being in Pot 1 or Pot 2, the runners-up and playoff winners fill out the rest of the spots. This is why, at least on paper, some say the pots are not balanced, with Pot 4 looking almost as strong as Pot 2 for now. There is also arguments made that some of these teams (example: Romania, Hungary) had easier groups than say Netherlands and Italy so they were able to achieve getting a higher pot without playing strong teams. However, the rules were known and at the end of the day 16/24 teams in the main draw will make the knockout round. Also, once the draw is complete we will know the fixture schedule the venues each team plays in
The playoff winners will still be drawn just like in Euro 2020 but we will not know the teams in the final tournament until late March, here are those teams involved (* means winners hosts the final):
A: Poland vs. Estonia / Wales vs. Finland*
B: Israel vs. Iceland / Bosnia-Herzegovina vs. Ukraine*
C: Georgia vs. Luxembourg* / Greece vs. Kazakhstan
Not counting the potential playoff winners, as of now there are no debutants in the main draw (Georgia, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, BiH, Israel and Estonia could become one if they qualify). As of now three teams from 2020 did not qualify (Russia, Sweden and Macedonia). Four teams making their return to the Euros. Albania and Romania return for the first time since 2016 while Serbia and Slovenia had to wait longer, first time at a Euros since 2000. Amongst the playoff candidates, Iceland were last there in 2016 while Greece haven't been in one since 2012