UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying

UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying
Tournament details
Dates	4 June 1998 – 17 November 1999
Teams	49
Tournament statistics
Matches played	228
Goals scored	652 (2.86 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Raúl (11 goals)
	← 1996 2004 →

Qualifying for the UEFA Euro 2000 final tournament, took place throughout 1998 and 1999. Forty-nine teams were divided into nine groups. All teams played against each other, within their groups, on a home-and-away basis. The winner of each group and the best runner-up qualified automatically for the final tournament. The rest of the runners-up played an additional set of playoff matches amongst each other.

Both Belgium and the Netherlands qualified automatically as co-hosts of the event.

Qualified teams[]

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament
Belgium	*1 !Co-host	01995-07-14-14 July 1995	3 (1972, 1980, 1984)
Netherlands	*1 !Co-host	01995-07-14-14 July 1995	5 (1976, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Czech Republic	Group 9 winner	01999-06-09-9 June 1999	4 (1960, 1976, 1980, 1996)
Norway	Group 2 winner	01999-09-08-8 September 1999	0 (debut)
Sweden	Group 5 winner	01999-09-08-8 September 1999	1 (1992)
Spain	Group 6 winner	01999-09-08-8 September 1999	5 (1964, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996)
Italy	Group 1 winner	01999-10-09-9 October 1999	4 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1996)
Germany	Group 3 winner	01999-10-09-9 October 1999	7 (1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
France	Group 4 winner	01999-10-09-9 October 1999	4 (1960, 1984, 1992, 1996)
Romania	Group 7 winner	01999-10-09-9 October 1999	2 (1984, 1996)
FR Yugoslavia	Group 8 winner	01999-10-09-9 October 1999	4 (1960, 1968, 1976, 1984)
Portugal	O !Best runner-up	01999-10-09-9 October 1999	2 (1984, 1996)
Denmark	P2 !Play-off winner	01999-11-17-17 November 1999	5 (1964, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996)
England	P1 !Play-off winner	01999-11-17-17 November 1999	5 (1968, 1980, 1988, 1992, 1996)
Slovenia	P3 !Play-off winner	01999-11-17-17 November 1999	0 (debut)
Turkey	P4 !Play-off winner	01999-11-17-17 November 1999	1 (1996)

Qualification seeding[]

The draw occurred on 18 January 1998, in Ghent, Belgium. The 49 participating teams were divided into five drawing pots based on the newly introduced 1997-edition of the UEFA national team coefficient ranking, which calculated an average of the team's points per game achieved combined in the Euro 1996 and 1998 World Cup qualifiers. The seeding list was however subject to some few minor modifications:

Germany were seeded first and not fifth as the defending champions (title holders).
Netherlands (ranked 11th) and Belgium (ranked 18th) were not seeded, as they did not participate in the qualifying tournament due to already having qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts. Consequently, all teams ranked below them moved up one or two seeding places higher than their rankings.

Nine groups were formed by drawing one team from each of the five pots. The remaining four teams from pot five, were subsequently drawn into four of the groups (randomly selected); meaning that the four groups with six teams featured two teams from pot five.

Pot 1
Team	Coeff	Seed
Germany (title holders)	2.35	1
Spain	2.60	2
Romania	2.45	3
Russia	2.39	4
England	2.37	5
Scotland	2.30	6
FR Yugoslavia	2.30	7
Italy	2.28	8
Norway	2.22	9

Pot 2
Team	Coeff	Seed
Bulgaria	2.22	10
Croatia	2.11	11
Denmark	2.11	12
Portugal	2.10	13
Austria	2.05	14
France	2.00	15
Czech Republic	1.85	16
Turkey	1.81	17
Greece	1.78	18

Pot 3
Team	Coeff	Seed
Republic of Ireland	1.75	19
Switzerland	1.69	20
Sweden	1.67	21
Lithuania	1.65	22
Ukraine	1.65	23
Slovakia	1.50	24
Finland	1.44	25
Israel	1.38	26
Georgia	1.38	27

Pot 4
Team	Coeff	Seed
Poland	1.28	28
Hungary	1.25	29
Northern Ireland	1.20	30
Bosnia and Herzegovina	1.12	31
Latvia	1.10	32
Macedonia	1.00	33
Cyprus	0.94	34
Wales	0.38	35
Iceland	0.78	36

Pot 5
Team	Coeff	Seed
Belarus	0.75	37
Slovenia	0.67	38
Armenia	0.65	39
Albania	0.60	40
Faroe Islands	0.60	41
Luxembourg	0.55	42
Template:Country data MLD	0.50	43
Azerbaijan	0.22	44
Estonia	0.20	45
Malta	0.20	46
Liechtenstein	0.05	47
San Marino	0.00	48
Andorra	NR	49

Note: The UEFA national team coefficient ranking automatically had taken into account in its ranking calculation, that France automatically qualified as hosts for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, meaning that the coefficient for France only factored their UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying record. Similarly, the coefficient considered only the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification record for England, FR Yugoslavia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. England automatically qualified as hosts of UEFA Euro 1996 while FR Yugoslavia were suspended due to UN sanctions. Bosnia and Herzegovina made their European qualification debut. Andorra made their qualification debut after being admitted to UEFA in November 1996.

Summary[]

Group winners and the best ranked runner-up qualified directly for UEFA Euro 2000

The remaining runners-up advanced to the play-offs

Other teams were eliminated after the qualifying group stage

Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	Group 5	Group 6	Group 7	Group 8	Group 9
Italy	Norway	Germany	France	Sweden	Spain	Romania	FR Yugoslavia	Czech Republic
Denmark	Slovenia	Turkey	Ukraine	England	Israel	Portugal	Republic of Ireland	Scotland
Switzerland Wales Belarus	Greece Latvia Albania Georgia	Finland Northern Ireland Moldova	Russia Iceland Armenia Andorra	Poland Bulgaria Luxembourg	Austria Cyprus San Marino	Slovakia Hungary Azerbaijan Liechtenstein	Croatia Macedonia Malta	Bosnia and Herzegovina Lithuania Estonia Faroe Islands

Tiebreakers[]

If two or more teams finished level on points after completion of the group matches, the following tie-breakers were used to determine the final ranking:

Higher number of points obtained in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Higher number of away goals scored in all group matches;
Fair play conduct in all group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card).