The official seeding for next year’s Euro 2016 tournament in France have been announced by FIFA, and England’s coefficient rating has determined that they sit in third place in the rankings heading into the event.
The seeding sees the 24 teams that have qualified divided into four pots of six, with the highest ranking teams being placed into pot 1, while the rest of the teams are placed into pots 2 – 4. A draw will then determine which teams are placed into which groups, with a team being drawn from each pot until there are eventually six teams of four.
Here are the pots heading into the draw:
Pot 1: France, Spain, Germany, England, Portugal, Belgium
Pot 2: Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, Austria, Russia, Ukraine
Pot 3: Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary
Pot 4: Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Wales, Albania, Northern Ireland
France were automatically placed into pot 1 given that they are hosts and did not have to qualify, while Spain were also placed in the same pot given that they are last year’s title holders. However, if France’s automatic qualification was not taken into account, then England would sit just below front-runners Germany and Spain, with those teams having a coefficient score of 40.236 and 37.963 respectively, whilst England boasts a score of 35.963. France’s score comes in at 33.599.
Elsewhere in the pots, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have both made their way into pot 4, so unless both teams qualify for the finals it’s unlikely we’ll see an Irish face-off. Wales has also made its way into the same pot. Meanwhile, pots 2 and 3 are very equal heading into the tournament, with the likes of Italy, Russia, Czech Republic and Sweden heading them up.
The draw to determine the Euro 2016 groups will take place on December 12th in Paris.
