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The 2016 UEFA European Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2016, will be the 15th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. It is scheduled to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016.

For the first time, the European Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that had been used since 1996. Under this new format, the finalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. As hosts, France have automatically qualified for the final tournament, while the other 53 national teams will compete in a qualifying competition, running from September 2014 to November 2015, to secure the remaining 23 places. Among these teams are back-to-back defending champions Spain, and for the first time since their affiliation with UEFA, Gibraltar.

France was chosen as the host on 28 May 2010, after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the 2016 finals. The matches will be played in ten stadia in ten cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, St-Etienne, and Toulouse. It will be the third time that France hosts the tournament, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. The French team have won the European Championship two times: in 1984 and 2000.

The winners will earn the right to participate in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup hosted by Russia. If Germany or Russia win, however, the runner-up will qualify as Germany have already qualified due to winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and Russia have qualified as hosts. If both Germany and Russia reach the final, the qualifier will be drawn from the losing semi-finalists.

Venues
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 which sees 24 teams taking part, instead of just 16. The decision means 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. The Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes and the Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier, venues which had been used for the 1998 World Cup, were also not chosen. The final list of the ten venues was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 25 January 2013.

Note: Capacity figures are those for matches at UEFA Euro 2016 and are not necessarily the total capacity that the stadium is capable of holding.


 * – Host city at the 1938 World Cup
 * – Host city at the 1998 World Cup
 * – Host city at the 1960 European Nations' Cup
 * – Host city at Euro 1984
 * – Host city at the 2003 Confederations Cup
 * – All capacities are approximate

Knockout phase structure
In the round of 16, UEFA have 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
 * Match 5: Winner Group C v 3rd Place Group A/B/F
 * Match 6: Winner Group E v Runner-up Group D
 * Match 7: Winner Group A v 3rd Place Group C/D/E
 * Match 8: Runner-up Group B v Runner-up Group F

The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depend on which four third-placed teams qualify for the round of 16:

The quarter-final match-ups are:
 * Quarter-final 1: Winner Match 1 v Winner Match 2
 * Quarter-final 2: Winner Match 3 v Winner Match 4
 * Quarter-final 3: Winner Match 5 v Winner Match 6
 * Quarter-final 4: Winner Match 7 v Winner Match 8

The semi-final match-ups are:
 * Semi-final 1: Winner Quarter-final 1 v Winner Quarter-final 2
 * Semi-final 2: Winner Quarter-final 3 v Winner Quarter-final 4

The final match-up is: Winner Semi-final 1 v Winner Semi-final 2. Same as every tournament since UEFA Euro 1984, there is no third-place match.

Group stage
UEFA announced the schedule of the tournament on 25 April 2014. All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Group winners, runners-up, and best four third-placed teams advance to the Round of 16.

Ranking of third-placed teams
UEFA Euro 2016 third-placed table

Knockout phase
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.