UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
International football competition
Why this is trending
Interest in “UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-02-25.
Categorised under Sports, this article fits a familiar pattern. Sports articles typically spike during championship events, record-breaking performances, or high-profile transfers and controversies.
At GlyphSignal we surface these trending signals every day—transforming Wikipedia’s vast pageview data into actionable insights about global curiosity.
Key Takeaways
- The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2016 final tournament.
- The draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis, Nice, on 23 February 2014.
- The other 53 teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams (Groups A–H) and one group of five teams (Group I).
- The eight remaining third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals.
- For the qualifying group stage, the teams were seeded into six pots (Pots 1–5 with 9 teams and Pot 6 with 8 teams) for the qualifying group stage draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, with the title holders (Spain) automatically seeded into Pot 1.
The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified host team France in the UEFA Euro 2016 final tournament.
A total of 53 national teams participated in this qualifying process, with Gibraltar taking part for the first time. The draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis, Nice, on 23 February 2014.
Qualified teams
Format
All UEFA member associations were eligible to compete in the qualifying competition, with the host team France qualifying directly to the finals tournament. The other 53 teams were drawn into eight groups of six teams (Groups A–H) and one group of five teams (Group I). The group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team (with the results against the sixth-placed team discarded) directly qualified to the finals. The eight remaining third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals.
Seeding system
Sides were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, which were announced along with the draw procedure and final tournament match schedule after the 23–24 January Executive Committee meeting in Nyon. For the qualifying group stage, the teams were seeded into six pots (Pots 1–5 with 9 teams and Pot 6 with 8 teams) for the qualifying group stage draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, with the title holders (Spain) automatically seeded into Pot 1. Each nation's coefficient was generated by calculating:
Content sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
