Maintained by Erdinç Sivritepe
Last updated: Oct 7,2000
UEFA - Set up of the Qualifying Groups51 members of the UEFA will play in the World Cup 2002. France qualifies to the finals automatically and the other 50 member countries will go through eliminations. UEFA has 13 direct entries and another possible from a play-off with a team from Asia. UEFA decided to place the 50 member into 9 groups. 9 group winners will qualify directly and the other four and the team to play Asian team will be selected from the group second place finishers. Eight second place teams play one of the other second place team in a two-game knock-off format and the ninth team plays the Asian team. In order to set-up the groups, UEFA ranked all member countries according to their performance in the 1998 World Cup Qualifying games and Euro2000 Qualifiers. The first nine in the ranking are placed in Pot 1, the countries ranked from 10th through 18th in Pot 2, 19th through 27th in Pot 3, 28th through 36th in Pot 4, and 37th through 50th in Pot 5. The first five groups are designed to play with 6 and the remaining 4 groups with 5. The Pot 5 teams are drawn first to one of the nine groups. Then Pot 4, Pot 3, Pot 2, Pot 1. The following table reflects the calculation for the country rankings: France didn't play in WC1998 qualifiers and Belgium and Netherlands in Euro2000 qualifiers since they were the host to those competitions. That's why while the total coefficients of other member countries are divided into two and France, Belgium, and Netherlands were ranked using the only competition they played. (When the countries tied for the final coefficient, the coefficients of the Euro2000 qualifiers (the later of the two) are used as tie-breaker. France is included in the table for statistical purpose only. WORLD CUP 98 EURO 2000 Countries G P COEFF G P COEFF TOTAL FINAL GROUP Pot 1 1 Spain 10 26 2.600 8 21 2.625 5.225 2.612 7 2 Romania 10 28 2.800 10 24 2.400 5.200 2.600 8 3 Norway 8 20 2.500 10 25 2.500 5.000 2.500 3 4 Sweden 10 21 2.100 8 22 2.750 4.850 2.425 4 5 Netherlands 8 19 2.375 0 0 0.000 2.375 2.375 5 6 Czech Republic 10 16 1.600 10 30 3.000 4.600 2.300 3 7 Germany 10 22 2.200 8 19 2.375 4.575 2.287 9 8 Belgium 8 18 2.250 0 0 0.000 2.250 2.250 6 9 Yugoslavia 10 23 2.300 8 17 2.125 4.425 2.212 1 Pot 2 10 Portugal 10 19 1.900 10 23 2.300 4.200 2.100 2 -- France 0 0 0.000 10 21 2.100 2.100 2.100 11 Italy 8 18 2.250 8 15 1.875 4.125 2.062 8 12 Austria 10 25 2.500 8 13 1.625 4.125 2.062 7 13 Scotland 10 23 2.300 10 18 1.800 4.100 2.050 6 14 Russia 8 17 2.125 10 19 1.900 4.025 2.012 1 15 Ukraine 10 20 2.000 10 20 2.000 4.000 2.000 5 16 England 8 19 2.375 8 13 1.625 4.000 2.000 9 17 Turkey 8 14 1.750 8 17 2.125 3.875 1.937 4 18 Denmark 8 17 2.125 8 14 1.750 3.875 1.937 3 Pot 3 19 Ireland 10 18 1.800 8 16 2.000 3.800 1.900 2 20 Croatia 8 15 1.875 8 15 1.875 3.750 1.875 6 21 Slovakia 10 16 1.600 10 17 1.700 3.300 1.650 4 22 Israel 8 13 1.625 8 13 1.625 3.250 1.625 7 23 Greece 8 14 1.750 10 15 1.500 3.250 1.625 9 24 Bulgaria 8 18 2.250 8 8 1.000 3.250 1.625 3 25 Switzerland 8 10 1.250 8 14 1.750 3.000 1.500 1 26 Poland 8 10 1.250 8 13 1.625 2.875 1.437 5 27 Lithuania 10 17 1.700 10 11 1.100 2.800 1.400 8 Pot 4 28 Cyprus 8 10 1.250 8 12 1.500 2.750 1.375 2 29 Hungary 8 12 1.500 10 12 1.200 2.700 1.350 8 30 Finland 8 11 1.375 8 10 1.250 2.625 1.312 9 31 Iceland 10 9 0.900 10 15 1.500 2.400 1.200 3 32 Latvia 10 10 1.000 10 13 1.300 2.300 1.150 6 33 FYR Macedonia 10 13 1.300 8 8 1.000 2.300 1.150 4 34 Bosnia-Herzegovina 8 9 1.125 10 11 1.100 2.225 1.112 7 35 Wales 8 7 0.875 8 9 1.125 2.000 1.000 5 36 Slovenia 8 1 0.125 10 17 1.700 1.825 0.912 1 Pot 5 37 Georgia 8 10 1.250 10 5 0.500 1.750 0.875 8 38 Armenia 10 8 0.800 10 8 0.800 1.600 0.800 5 39 Estonia 10 4 0.400 10 11 1.100 1.500 0.750 2 40 Northern Ireland 10 7 0.700 8 5 0.625 1.325 0.662 3 41 Albania 10 4 0.400 10 7 0.700 1.100 0.550 9 42 Faroe Islands 10 6 0.600 10 3 0.300 0.900 0.450 1 43 Azerbaijan 8 3 0.375 10 4 0.400 0.775 0.387 4 44 Belarus 10 4 0.400 8 3 0.375 0.775 0.387 5 45 Moldova 8 0 0.000 8 4 0.500 0.500 0.250 4 46 Liechtenstein 10 0 0.000 10 4 0.400 0.400 0.200 7 47 Andorra 0 0 0.000 10 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 2 47 Luxembourg 8 0 0.000 8 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 1 47 Malta 10 0 0.000 8 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 3 47 San Marino 8 0 0.000 8 0 0.000 0.000 0.000 6 Thanks to Erhan Subaşı who suggested this page and did all the coefficient calculations.
