England A Top Seed For Euro 2016

England may not have been a top seed in Brazil this Summer, however they will be a top seed for the European Championship qualifying draw that will take place on the 23rd of February.

The seeding is separate to that of FIFA and instead uses the UEFA coefficient system. It's all very dull and very boring, but what does this really mean?

Well it means England will avoid the likes of Italy, Germany and Spain, along with the other top seeds Holland, Portugal, Greece, Russia and Bosnia-Hercegovina.

There will be eight groups of six teams and one group of 5 teams. However in a strange twist this year, France will compete in qualifying despite hosting the tournament and they will join the group with only 5 teams. Usually the host of the tournament won't qualify, however this time around France will. However they will play in the tournament regardless of their qualifying performance. Put simply, even if they finish bottom of their group, they will play in the finals. This is due to the fact teams who host tournaments and don't have to qualify find it hard to arrange friendlies.

It will be interesting to see who England draw, lets hope it's not Montenegro, as I think we're all a little bored of that fixture by now.

Qualifying pots for Euro 2016 draw:

Pot 1: Spain (holders), Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Bosnia-Hercegovina

Pot 2 : Ukraine, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Republic of Ireland

Pot 3 : Serbia, Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Norway, Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Poland

Pot 4: Montenegro, Armenia, Scotland, Finland, Latvia, Wales, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belarus

Pot 5 : Iceland, Northern Ireland, Albania, Lithuania, Moldova, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus

Pot 6 : Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar