Not that Scots will care… draw for play-offs is tomorrow

With the qualifying section winners and the best second-placed team (i.e. the best record against the top-five opponents in their group) all guaranteed places in next year’s Poland and Ukraine finals, the 16-team line-up will be completed with the other eight sections’ runners-up being reduced to four through playing one another on a home and away basis in a seeded draw.

The four second-placed nations with the highest ranking country coefficient will be in the seeded pot, with the other four such nations the non-seeds. The seeded team will be guaranteed a second leg at home on 15 November, with the play-off first legs scheduled to be played on either 11 or 12 November.

The four play-off winners who progress, then, will make up a roster that will be composed of the two hosts, nine group winners and the best runners-up. The draw for the finals will take place on 2 December in Kiev with the teams split into four groups of four. The tournament itself will kick off in Warsaw on 8 June, 2012, with the final held in Kiev on 1 July.

And Euro 2012 will become a slice of football history, since it will be the last 16-team finals with the European Championship, to give the competition its full title, expanded to a 24-team jamboree in 2016.

Uefa have yet to confirm how the qualification process for Euro 2016 will operate. But it is believed that, as with the current tournament, there will be nine qualification groups made up of seven groups of six teams and two groups of five teams, meaning that 52 nations will chase the 23 slots available for a finals to be held in France.

Middle-ranking European nations will, therefore, have their prospects of reaching a major finals significantly enhanced, with it expected that both the group winners and group runners-up will qualify automatically. It is a far cry from the first time Scotland qualified for the finals, in 1992, when only eight teams were present.

With the hosts France guaranteed entry, that will leave five places to be earned by the third-placed teams. The country finishing in this position that boast the best record will also progress directly to Euro 2016, leaving eight third-placed teams to contest four play-offs on the same basis as the play-off for next year’s Poland and Ukraine finals.