UEFA Euro 2008

Template:Future sport The 2008 European Football Championship will take place in Austria and Switzerland, from 7 to 29 June 2008. It is the second successful joint bid. The only previous tournament held in two countries was the 2000 European Football Championship, hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. Austria and Switzerland will automatically qualify as hosts. The remaining 14 teams will be determined in a qualifying tournament that will start in September 2006.

File:Euro2008Logo.jpg

The Official Euro 2008 Logo

The two countries jointly bid to host the games, and faced major competition from Greece/Turkey, Scotland/Ireland, Russia, Hungary and Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina. Austria had already bid with another country before, which was Hungary for Euro 2004. They had eventually lost to Portugal, who managed a successful championship.

Scotland and Ireland's bid was one of the first to go, along with bids from Russia and Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina, which were rejected.

Austria/Switzerland, Greece/Turkey, Nordic four-nation bid (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) and Hungary were recommended before the final vote. Greece and Turkey were soon rejected and let Hungary and Austria/Switzerland battle for the win. But the final vote went to Austria and Switzerland, who had been the favourites in many people's eyes, all along.

Venues

City	Stadium	Capacity	Host Matches
Basel Swiss	St. Jakob-Park	42,500	First match, 2 group matches, 2 Quarter-finals, One Semi-final.
Bern Swiss	Stade de Suisse, Wankdorf	32,000	Three Group Matches
Geneva Swiss	Stade de Genève	30,000	Same as Above
Zürich Swiss	Letzigrund Stadion	30,000	Same as Above
Innsbruck Austrian Austrian	Tivoli-Neu Stadion	30,000	Same as Above
Klagenfurt Austrian Austrian	Wörthersee Stadion	30,000	Same as Above
Salzburg Austrian Austrian	Wals Siezenheim Stadium	30,000	Same as Above
Vienna Austrian Austrian	Ernst Happel Stadium	50,000	3 group matches, Two Quarter-finals, One Semifinal and Final.

In 2004, the Zürich venue became a problem for organizers. Originally, the Hardturm stadium was to be renovated and used as the city's venue, but legal challenges delayed the plan to a point that would not have allowed the ground to be used in 2008. This created a problem, as the agreement between UEFA and the organizers stipulated that four venues would be used in each country. The problem was solved when the organizers proposed renovating Letzigrund instead; UEFA approved the revised plan in January 2005.

Qualifying format

Main article: 2008 European Championship (qualifying)

The draw for the UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifying round took place in Montreux, Switzerland on 27 January, 2006 at 12:00 CET.

The qualifying process would take part in September 2006, which is a couple of months after the 2006 World Cup. Austria and Switzerland have already qualified for the tournament finals as host nations.

The Qualifying Format has been changed compared to the previous tournament. The winners and runners-up from seven groups will automatically qualify for the Championship, with the hosts filling the other two slots in the 16-team tournament. The move means there will no longer be play-offs between teams finishing in second place in the groups. Six of the qualifying groups will contain seven teams, and the other eight.

The individual qualifying groups are as follows:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
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Group E	Group F	Group G
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External links

• UEFA Euro 2008 Official Site
• Format from UEFA Website
• Euro 2008 spreadsheet — computes standings from scores