UEFA release Euro 2016 pots for Sunday`s qualifying draw in Nice

Zee Media Bureau/Jayanta Oinam Nice: The administrative body of European football, UEFA have divided the teams participating in the EURO 2016 qualifiers. A total of 53 national teams will compete for 23 spots in the qualifying round of the 24-team continental tournament, which will be held in France. The sides have been divided into five pots of nine teams and one of eight, based on qualifying and final tournament results from the last World Cup and European Championship, as well as 2014 World Cup qualifying results. Pot 1:Spain, 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, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus Pot 6:Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar The draw for the 15th European Championship, to be held on Sunday at the Palais des Congres Acropolis in Nice, will decide who plays whom during the qualifying round. Pot 1 will be drawn first, with picked sides allocated to the groups in alphabetical order – from Group A to Group I, which will have five teams instead of six. However, for political reasons, the UEFA will make special arrangements so that Spain and Gibraltar are not put in the same group. So thus for Azerbaijan and Armenia. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the finals along with the best third-placed side. The final four spots will be decided from the play-off involving the remaining eight third-placed teams, for which a separate draw will be held. This time, the honour of performing the draw has been accorded to goal-keepers who have won the Henri Delaunay Trophy. In the presence of UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and legends Ruud Gullit and Bixente Lizarazu, they will pick teams from the pots. Barring the deceased Lev Yashin – who won the inaugural tournament in 1960 with Russia, all the other winning goal-keepers of the past 14 editions will be present at the draw. And they are: Jose Angel Iribar (1964, Spain), Dino Zoff (1968, Italy), Sepp Maier (1972, Germany), Ivo Viktor (1976, Czech Republic), Toni Schumacher (1980, Germany), Joel Bats (1984, France), Hans van Breukelen (1988, Netherlands), Peter Schmeichel (1992, Denmark), Andreas Kopke (1996, Germany), Fabien Barthez (2000, France), Antonis Nikopolidis (2004, Greece) and Iker Casillas (2008 and 2012, Spain)