The Euro 2016 draw explained

For the purposes of Sunday's draw the 53 participating teams have been seeded with each nation's results in the 2010 World Cup, Euro 2012 and qualifying for this year's World Cup taken into account.

Accordingly, they have been divided into six pots of teams; five of nine and one, comprised of the lowest ranked sides, of eight. The Republic of Ireland is a second seed and is therefore in Pot Two.

The teams will be drawn into eight groups of six teams and one (Group I) of five.

For the purposes of television Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and England will all be in six team groups. For political purposes Azerbaijan will be kept apart from Armenia and Spain will be kept apart from Gibraltar.

Pot One will be drawn first then Pot Six. So that the tournament hosts, who qualify automatically, will be involved in regular matches on qualifying dates, France will be placed in the group that does not get a team from Pot Six.

Pots Five through to Two will then be drawn in that order meaning that Ireland will be one of the last sides to be drawn. The draw is scheduled to start a little after 11am and is expected to last an hour.

After the draw, instead of representatives of the various countries in each group meeting to hammer out an agreement on fixtures, Uefa officials will meet with broadcasters to construct an overall match schedule.

The organisation’s new TV deal is based on a “week of football” concept intended to make many more games available for live broadcast and the teams with the greatest potential audiences are likely to play more games in primetime slots.

The first group matches will take place this September with the final round of games scheduled for October 2015. The play-offs will be a month after that. The fixture list will be published by Uefafollowing the draw.

The new ‘Week of Football’ concept will involve games in various groups being played between Thursday to Tuesday. Kick-off times will generally be 5.0 pm or 7.45 pm on Saturdays and Sundays and 7.45 pm for games played on Thursdays, Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays.

On double-header matchweeks, teams will play on Thursday and Sunday, Friday and Monday or Saturday and Tuesday.

The top two sides in each group will qualify automatically as will the third placed side with the best record against the teams finishing first, second, fourth and fifth in their group.

The remaining eight third placed sides will enter play-offs for the last four places at the 24 team tournament.

SEEDINGS
Pot 1: Spain (holders), Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Pot 2: Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Republic of Ireland
Pot 3: Serbia, Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Norway, Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Poland
Pot 4: Montenegro, Armenia, Scotland, Finland, Latvia, Wales, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belarus
Pot 5: Iceland, Northern Ireland, Albania, Lithuania, Moldova, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus
Pot 6: Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar

Uefa Euro 2016/European Qualifiers calendar
Matchday 1: 7th-9th September 2014
Matchday 2: 9th-11th October 2014
Matchday 3: 12th-14th October 2014
Matchday 4: 14th-16th November 2014
Matchday 5: 27th-29th March 2015
Matchday 6: 12th-14th June 2015
Matchday 7: 3rd-5th September 2015
Matchday 8: 6th-8th September 2015
Matchday 9: 8th-10th October 2015
Matchday 10: 11th-13th October 2015
Play-off first leg: 12th-14th November 2015
Play-off second leg: 15th-17th November 2015