COUNTDOWN TO EURO 2016

The final draw for the finals will take place at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte Maillot in Paris, on 12 December 2015, 18:00CET. The 24 qualified teams will be drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts France being automatically placed in position A1. The remaining teams will be seeded into four pots of five (Pot 1) or six teams (Pots 2, 3 and 4).

As the title holders, Spain will be seeded in Pot 1, while the other 22 teams will be seeded according to the UEFA National team coefficients updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), which were released by UEFA on 14 October 2015.

Thirteen of the sixteen teams (including hosts France) that qualified for Euro 2012 qualified again for the 2016 final tournament. Among them were England, who became only the sixth team to record a flawless qualifying campaign (10 wins in 10 matches), defending European champions Spain, and world champions Germany, who qualified for their 12th straight European Championship finals. Romania, Turkey, Austria and Switzerland all returned after missing out in 2012, with the Austrians qualifying for just their second final Euro tournament, after having co-hosted Euro 2008. Returning to the final tournament after long absences were Belgium for the first time since co-hosting Euro 2000 and Hungary for the first time in 44 years, having last appeared at Euro 1972, and 30 years since appearing in a major tournament, last being their participation in the1986 FIFA World Cup.

Five teams secured their first-ever qualification to a UEFA European Championship final tournament: Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales. Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales had each previously competed in the FIFA World Cup, while Albania and Iceland had never participated in a major tournament in their history. Similarly, both Austria and Ukraine completed successful qualification campaigns for the first time, having only previously qualified as hosts (of 2008 and 2012 respectively). Scotland were the only British nation not to qualify for the finals and 2004 champions Greece finished bottom in their group. The champions of 1988, the Netherlands, missed out of the finals for the first time since Euro 1984 (also held in France), and only 16 months after having finished third in the2014 FIFA World Cup.

Pot 1 Spain, Germany, England, Portugal, Belgium

Pot 2 Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Ukraine

Pot 3 Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary

Pot 4 Turkey, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, Wales, Albania, Northern Ireland

Hosts, France are automatically assigned to position A1. Defending champions, Spain are automatically assigned to Pot 1.

Initially, twelve stadia were presented for the French bid, chosen on 28 May 2010. These venues were to be whittled down to nine by the end of May 2011, but it was suggested in June 2011 that eleven venues might be used. The French Football Federation had to choose which nine stadia would actually be used. The choice for the first seven was undisputed –France's national stadium, the Stade de France, four newly constructed stadia in Lille, Lyon, Nice and Bordeaux, and those of the biggest cities, Paris and Marseille. The last two remaining places, after Strasbourg opted out for financial reasons following relegation, were chosen to be Lens and Nancy in the first round of voting, instead of Saint-Étienne and Toulouse, chosen as reserve stadia.

In June 2011, the number of host venues was increased to eleven because of the new tournament format featuring 24 teams, instead of the previous 16. The decision meant that the reserve cities of Toulouse and St-Étienne joined the list of hosts. However, in December 2011, Nancy announced its withdrawal from the tournament, after the stadium's renovation fell through, so ten host cities will now be used. Also, the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes and the Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier (venues which were used for the1998 World Cup) were not chosen. The final list of ten venues was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 25 January 2013.

To accommodate the expansion from a 16 team finals tournament to 24 teams, the format will be changed from that used in 2012 with the addition of two extra groups in the group stage, and an extra round in the knockout stages. The six groups (A to F) would still contain four teams each, with the top two from each group still going through to the knockout stage. In the new format however, the four best third-ranked sides would also progress, leaving 16 teams going into the new round of 16 knockout stage, ahead of the usual quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, and only 8 teams going out at the group stage. The format is exactly the one which was applied to the1986, 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups, with the exception of the absence of a third-place play-off.

This format generates a total of 51 games, compared to 31 games for the previous 16-team tournament, to be played over a period of 31 days. UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino previously described the format as "not ideal" due to the need for third-ranked teams in the group stage advancing, leading to a difficulty in preventing situations where teams might be able to know in advance what results they need to progress out of the group, lending to a lack of suspense for fans, or even the prospect of mutually beneficial collusion between teams.

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria will be applied:

1.Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;

2.Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;

3.Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;

4.If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;

5.Superior goal difference in all group matches;

6.Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;

7.If only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1–6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out. (This criterion is not used if more than two teams have the same number of points.)

8.Fair play conduct (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);

9.Position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system.

The four best third-placed teams are determined according to the following criteria:

1.Higher number of points obtained;

2.Superior goal difference;

3.Higher number of goals scored;

4.Fair play conduct;

5.Position in the UEFA national team coefficient ranking system.

In the round of 16, UEFA has arranged the match-ups to take place as follows:

Match 1: Runner-up Group A v Runner-up Group C

Match 2: Winner Group D v 3rd Place Group B/E/F

Match 3: Winner Group B v 3rd Place Group A/C/D

Match 4: Winner Group F v Runner-up Group E