The Republic of Ireland look set to be among the fourth, bottom seeds at next year’s European Championship finals in France should they manage to qualify for the tournament via next month’s play-offs.
Uefa determine its seedings based on the cofficient rankings over a four-year period — whereby 20 per cent weighting is given to a nation’s results in Euro 2012 (qualifying and final tournament), and 40 per cent each to the 2014 World Cup (qualifying and final tournament) and the Euro 2016 qualifiers.
As things stand, four of the teams who have already qualified for the finals in France — Northern Ireland, Wales, Iceland and Albania )— have a lower co-efficient than the Republic of Ireland. Should Norway and Slovenia, each of whom also have a weaker coefficient to Ireland, negotiate their way through the play-offs, then Ireland, on the proviso that they also qualify, would jump into the third pot of seeds.
Yet the likelier scenario is a fourth seeding and thereby a tougher group which will bring back dark memories of what happened in Poland, four years ago, when Ireland were pooled with Italy, Spain and Croatia and suffered accordingly, losing three from three.
In the meantime, of course, they have to qualify. No easy task, given that they are unseeded and will face one of Sweden, the Ukraine, Hungary or Bosnia-Herzegovinia.
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“I’m not going to spend the days leading up to Sunday hoping for one team over another,” Martin O’Neill, the Irish manager said.
“Each one of the four seeded teams will present a challenge, and the four unseeded teams also present a severe test for the top four. We’re not concerned about whether we’re seeded or unseeded at this stage, and we’re confident to take on anyone.”
The play-off draw is this Sunday in Nyon - with the first leg ties to take place between 12 and 14 November, and the second leg games scheduled from from 15 to 17 November.
UEFA EURO 2016 RANKINGS
Confirmed Pot 1 seeds
France, Spain, Germany, England, Portugal, Belgium
Confirmed Pot 2 seeds
Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia
Confirmed Pot 4 seeds
Iceland, Wales, Albania, Northern Ireland
Uefa have yet to determine which pot the following teams will be seeded in:
Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey
Coefficients of teams in play-offs
Bosnia and Herzegovina (30.367) – seeded
Ukraine (30.313) – seeded
Sweden (29.028) – seeded
Hungary (27.142) – seeded
Denmark (27.140) – unseeded
Republic of Ireland (26.902) – unseeded
Norway (26.439) – unseeded
Slovenia (25.441) – unseeded