User:Thedefenceman/sandbox

1990 FIFA World Cup




Euro 2004 qualification Seedings
The draw was made on 25 January 2002, in Porto, Portugal. France were seeded first as holders. The other seedings were determined by points per game in the qualifiers for 2000 European Championship and the 2002 World Cup. Belgium and Netherlands did not have to qualify for UEFA Euro 2000 as hosts, so only their record in World Cup 2002 was used.

Portugal qualified automatically as hosts of the tournament and therefore did not take part in the qualification process.

Portugal 2.50

Germany 2.31

Russia 2.20

Croatia 2.12

Romania 2.11

Netherlands 2.10

Belgium 2.00

Republic of Ireland 2.00

Ukraine 1.80

Euro 2000 Qualification summary
{{legend|#BBF3BB|Group winners and the best ranked runner-up qualified directly for UEFA Euro 2000}} {{legend|#BBF3FF|The remaining runners-up advanced to the play-offs}} {{legend||Other teams were eliminated after the qualifying group stage}}

Euro 1996 Qualification summary
{{legend|#BBF3BB|Group winners and the six best ranked runners-up qualified directly for UEFA Euro 1996}} {{legend|#BBF3FF|The two worst runners-up advanced to the play-off}} {{legend||Other teams were eliminated after the qualifying group stage}}

2006 FIFA World Cup
=2010 FIFA World Cup qualification=

The European zone of qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals. The qualification process started on 20 August 2008, nearly two months after the end of UEFA Euro 2008, and ended on 18 November 2009. The qualification process saw the first competitive matches of Montenegro.

Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, France, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland qualified in the first round by winning their groups. Croatia, Greece, Portugal, and Russia qualified via the second round play-offs.

Format
Teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The nine group winners qualified directly, while the best eight second-placed teams contested home and away play off matches for the remaining four places. In determining the best eight second placed teams, the results against teams finishing last in the six team groups were not counted for consistency between the five and six team groups.

Seeding
After initially proposing to use a similar system to recent World Cup and European Championship qualification (based on results across the previous two European qualification cycles), the UEFA Executive Committee decided on 27 September 2007 at its meeting in Istanbul that seeding for the qualifiers would be based on FIFA World Rankings, in accordance with the FIFA World Cup regulations (which note that where teams are ranked on "performance" criteria, the FIFA World Rankings must be used).

The FIFA World Ranking used for seeding was the most recent at the time of the preliminary draw, namely the November 2007 edition. Initially scheduled for 21 November, the release date of the ranking was moved to 23 November to include the final match days of Euro 2008 qualification.

The countries which eventually qualified for the final tournament are emboldened in the table below.

Draw
The draw for the group stage took place in Durban, South Africa on 25 November 2007. During the draw, teams were drawn from the six pots A to F (see above) into the nine groups below, starting with pot F, which filled position 6 in the groups, then continued with pot E filling position 5, pot D in position 4 and so on.

Summary
{{legend|#ccffcc|Winner of each group qualified directly for the 2010 FIFA World Cup}} {{legend|#BBF3FF|The eight best runners-up among all nine groups advanced to the second round (play-offs)}} {{legend|#ffcccc|Other teams were eliminated after the first round}}

Ranking of second placed teams
Because one group has one team fewer than the others, matches against the sixth placed team in each group are not included in this ranking. As a result, eight matches played by each team will count for the purposes of the second placed table.

Second round
The UEFA second round (often referred to as the play off stage) was contested by the best eight runners up from the nine first round groups. The winners of each of four home and away ties joined the group winners in the World Cup finals in South Africa. Norway, with 10 points, was ranked 9th so failed to qualify for the second round.

Seeding and draw
The eight teams were seeded according to the FIFA World Rankings released on 16 October (shown in parentheses in the table below). The draw for the ties was held in Zürich on 19 October, with the top four teams seeded into one pot and the bottom four teams seeded into a second. A separate draw decided the host of the first leg.

Matches

 * }

Tiebreakers
If teams were even on points at the end of group play, the tied teams were ranked by:
 * 1) Greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned
 * 2) Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned
 * 3) Greatest number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned
 * 4) Goal difference in all group matches
 * 5) Greatest number of goals scored in all group matches
 * 6) A play-off on neutral ground. If, after 90 minutes, this match ended in a draw, two 15-minute periods of extra time would be played. If the score was still level after extra time, a penalty shoot-out would determine the winner.

This was a change from the 2002 FIFA World Cup, where total goal difference was the first tiebreaker.

Summary
{{legend|#ccffcc|Winner of each group and the two best runners-up qualified directly for the 2006 FIFA World Cup}} {{legend|#BBF3FF|The Runners-up advanced to the second round (play-offs)}} {{legend|#ffcccc|Other teams were eliminated after the first round}}

Play-offs
By the rules of the UEFA qualifying tournament, the first-place finishers in each of eight groups received automatic berths, along with the two second-place teams that had earned the most points against teams in the top six of their individual groups.

The six remaining second-place teams were divided into two pots based on their standings in the September 2005 FIFA World Rankings. The division was:

Sweden and Poland qualified directly to the World Cup. The other teams had to play off.

Matches

 * }

September 2005 FIFA World Rankings
4 8 12 20 30 37 38 39 45 48 https://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/rank=136/uefa.html

=2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)=

The European Zone of qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup saw 53 teams competing for 13 places at the finals in Brazil. The qualification process started on 7 September 2012, over two months after the end of UEFA Euro 2012, and ended on 19 November 2013. There were nine winners of each qualifying group as well as the winners of four play-offs between group runners-up.

Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland qualified in the first round by winning their groups. Croatia, France, Greece, and Portugal qualified via the second round play-offs.

Format
All 53 UEFA national teams entered qualification, aiming to secure one of the 13 European Zone slots for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The draw for the qualification groups was held at the World Cup Preliminary Draw at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 30 July 2011. The qualification format was the same as 2010. The teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five, with the nine group winners qualifying directly for the final tournament. The eight best runners-up (determined by records against the first-, third-, fourth- and fifth-placed teams in their groups to ensure equity between different groups) were drawn in two-legged play-offs that determined the remaining four qualifying nations.

Seeding
The July 2011 FIFA World Rankings were used to seed the teams. In consideration of the delicate political situations of the relationships between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as relations between Russia and Georgia, UEFA requested that FIFA maintain the current UEFA policy not to draw these teams into the same qualification groups – although as Armenia and Azerbaijan were in the same pot they could not be drawn together anyway. The mechanism for keeping Russia and Georgia apart was confirmed by the FIFA Organising Committee on 29 July 2011.

Teams were allocated to seeding pots as follows (July 2011 FIFA Rankings shown in brackets; the countries which eventually qualified for the final tournament are presented in bold):

First round
The matches were played between 7 September 2012 and 15 October 2013. An initial schedule that includes matches before this date was not ratified by FIFA.

Summary
{{legend|#ccffcc|Winner of each group qualified directly for the 2014 FIFA World Cup}} {{legend|#BBF3FF|The eight best runners-up among all nine groups advanced to the second round (play-offs)}} {{legend|#ffcccc|Other teams were eliminated after the first round}}

Tie-breaking criteria
The ranking in each group is determined as follows:
 * a) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;
 * b) goal difference in all group matches;
 * c) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings shall be determined as follows:
 * d) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
 * e) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
 * f) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the teams concerned;
 * g) greater number of goals scored away from home between the teams concerned (if the tie is only between two teams)

Group A
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group B
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group C
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group D
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group E
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group F
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group G
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group H
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Group I
Category:2014 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA) templates

Ranking of second-placed teams
Because one group had one team fewer than the others, matches against the last-placed team in each of the six-team groups were not included in this ranking. As a result, eight matches played by each team counted for the purposes of the second-placed table.

The eight best runners-ups determined by the following parameters in this order:
 * 1) Highest number of points
 * 2) Goal difference
 * 3) Highest number of goals scored

Second round
The eight best group runners-up contested the second round, where they were paired into four two-legged (home-and-away) fixtures. The four winners qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Seeding and draw
The second round draw took place at the headquarters of FIFA in Zurich on 21 October 2013. The October 2013 FIFA World Rankings were used to decide which of the teams would be seeded (shown below in brackets).

The following teams participated in the second round:

Matches
The matches were played on 15 and 19 November 2013.


 * }