The UEFA European Football Championship 2024 will be held in Germany, and the German team is automatically qualified as the host nation. The remaining 23 places were allocated through qualification matches.

The qualification matches took place from March to November 2023. The winners and runners-up of the ten qualifying groups are directly qualified for the final tournament; 20 teams are participating this way. The last three places were decided in the play-off matches of the 2022/23 UEFA Nations League in March 2024. In these play-offs, 16 teams competed for the remaining spots.

The play-offs were conducted in a knockout system with semi-finals and a final for the last EURO tickets. This allowed at least one team from the lowest division, typically the weakest teams, to participate in the EURO. The play-off draw took place on 22 November 2023.

Final Tournament Draw

The draw for the EURO group stage took place on 2 December 2023 at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Participants were drawn from 4 pots into 6 groups of 4 teams each. Since the draw occurred before the play-off tournament, three placeholders for the play-off winners were added to the groups. Host nation Germany was placed in Group A.

The 24 qualified teams were divided into four pots of six teams each, based on the final standings of the qualifiers:

• Pot 1: Host nation and the five best group winners (places 1 – 5 in the final standings)
• Pot 2: The other five group winners and the best runner-up (places 6 – 11)
• Pot 3: The next six runners-up (places 12 – 17)
• Pot 4: The last three runners-up (places 18 – 20) and the three play-off winners

Pot 1:

• Germany (host nation)
• Portugal
• France
• Spain
• Belgium
• England

Pot 2:

• Hungary
• Turkey
• Romania
• Denmark
• Albania
• Austria

Pot 3:

• Netherlands
• Scotland
• Croatia
• Slovenia
• Slovakia
• Czech Republic

Pot 4:

• Italy (defending champions)
• Serbia
• Switzerland
• Poland (play-off winner A)
• Ukraine (play-off winner B)
• Georgia (play-off winner C)

Team Size

Unlike the two previous tournaments (EURO 2021 and World Cup 2022), which allowed a squad size of 26 players due to COVID-19, UEFA had initially decided to revert to the previous standard squad size of 23 players for this tournament. However, in May 2024, UEFA announced that this decision was reversed, and a squad size of 26 players was permitted.

Match Schedule and Kick-off Times

The match schedule was announced on 10 May 2022. On 14 June 2023, exactly one year before the start of the tournament, UEFA announced the kick-off times for the group-stage matches. On the 1st and 2nd match days, except for the opening match, three games per day will be played, starting at 15:00, 18:00, and 21:00.

Qualified Teams

Of the 24 teams that qualified for the tournament, 19 participated in the previous edition. This includes defending champions Italy and runners-up England, as well as the 2022 World Cup runners-up France and bronze medalists Croatia. Portugal qualified with a perfect record, while France, England, Belgium, Hungary, and Romania also remained unbeaten.

Georgia qualified for a major tournament for the first time since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and was the only debutant team in this edition.

Not Qualified:

• Sweden
• Russia (excluded due to the invasion of Ukraine)
• Wales

Key Facts Explained Briefly

• Host nation Germany is automatically qualified.
• 24 teams will compete in the final tournament from 14 June to 14 July 2024.
• 20 participants of EURO 2024 qualify through the group stage of the European Qualifiers (the top two teams of each group advance).
• Three additional teams qualify through the Nations League play-offs.