UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying draw

Group A
Germany
Turkey
Austria
Belgium
Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan

Group B
Russia
Slovakia
Republic of Ireland
FYR Macedonia
Armenia
Andorra

Group C
Italy
Serbia
Northern Ireland
Slovenia
Estonia
Faroe Islands

Group D
France
Romania
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Belarus
Albania
Luxembourg

Group E
Netherlands
Sweden
Finland
Hungary
Moldova
San Marino

Group F
Croatia
Greece
Israel
Latvia
Georgia
Malta

Group G
England
Switzerland
Bulgaria
Wales
Montenegro

Group H
Portugal
Denmark
Norway
Cyprus
Iceland

Group I
Spain
Czech Republic
Scotland
Lithuania
Liechtenstein

Bye to finals (hosts)
Poland
Ukraine

Qualifying explained

Fifty-one countries participated in the draw. The groups will be contested according to a league system on a home-and-away basis, with games scheduled between September 2010 and October 2011.

The nine winners and the runner-up with the best record against the top five sides in their pool qualify directly for the final tournament, the last before the championship is expanded to 24 teams. The eight remaining runners-up go into play-off matches in November 2011 to decide the final four sides to join co-hosts Poland and Ukraine.

I am very much against joint hosts. I think it brings down the standard of the whole tournament.

When Austria and Switzerland hosted a few years back, it allowed two countries with no hope to both qualify and they were top seeds? Makles a mockery of the tournament really.

Im all for smaller footballing nations hostingt hese tournaments and qualifying as hosts, but to have two shit teams qualifying each time, well thats not good enough. 2 out of 16 poor.

Perhaps there will be space for this with 24 teams in the future (I was not aware of this).

How will the tournament work with 24 teams? 4 groups of 6? 6 groups of 4? Then what?