{"id":120266,"date":"2025-05-21T16:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120266\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T16:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T16:43:14","slug":"england-scotland-wales-and-ireland-denied-automatic-qualification-for-euro-2028-by-uefa-after-shock-rule-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120266\/","title":{"rendered":"England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland DENIED automatic qualification for Euro 2028 by UEFA after shock rule change"},"content":{"rendered":"

England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland will have to qualify for Euro<\/a> 2028 despite hosting the tournament.<\/p>\n

But they will be given a second chance if they fail to reach the finals by finishing as winners or runners-up in their qualification groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two spots will be reserved for the two best ranked hosts who have not made it through their groups.<\/p>\n

UEFA on Wednesday announced that all four nations will compete in the qualifying phase, with 12 groups of four or five teams battling it out for 24 places.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 12 group winners and the eight best runners-up will qualify.<\/p>\n

Host nations are usually granted automatic qualification but UEFA has had to alter the protocol because there are four.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"England, <\/p>\n

England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland won’t be granted automatic qualification\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"England <\/p>\n

England have reached the final but lost in the last two Euros tournaments under Southgate\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Scotland <\/p>\n

Scotland qualified but have quickly been knocked out in the group stages in the last two Euros\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fortunes of the host nations will determine how many of the remaining four places are up for grabs in a play-off phase involving the remaining runners-up and the best-ranked 2026-27 Nations League non-qualified group winners.<\/p>\n

England, who have reached the final in the last two Euros, asked to take part in the qualifiers so they can keep a competitive edge going into the competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Scotland made it to the group stages in 2020 and 2024 while Wales qualified in 2016 and 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Republic of Ireland’s hasn’t featured in the last two tournaments but did play in the two previous, in 2012 and in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland, who also played at Euro 2016, were initially part of the five-nation bid, but\u00a0the withdrawal of Belfast’s Casement Park means the country will no longer host any games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If both safety net spots are used by host nations, eight other teams would compete for the final two places in two single legged knockout paths.<\/p>\n

If just one is needed then 12 teams will compete in three paths in a similar basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if all four host countries qualify through their groups, eight teams will play two-legged ties, with the winners making it through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Wales <\/p>\n

Wales have failed to qualify for the last two Euros but did reach the semi-finals in 2016\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"England <\/p>\n

England asked to take part in the qualifiers so they can keep a competitive edge for the Euros<\/p>\n

Following a meeting in Bilbao, UEFA said: ‘The UEFA executive committee has confirmed the qualification format for Euro 2028, to be held across nine venues in the UK and Ireland with 24 participating teams.<\/p>\n

‘As in the current 2024-26 European Qualifiers, 12 qualifying groups will be formed of four or five teams. Hosts England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales will also participate in qualifying, drawn into separate groups.<\/p>\n

‘The 12 group winners and 8 best runners-up (20 teams) will advance directly to the Euro 2028 final tournament.<\/p>\n

‘Two spots in the final tournament will be reserved for the two best-ranked host nations who are not qualified as group winners or best runners-up after the completion of the qualifying group stage.’<\/p>\n

The qualifiying groups will be drawn in December 2026, once the National League has concluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The opening game of Euro 2028 will be played at Cardiff’s 75,000 seat Principality Stadium<\/p>\n

\"Wembley <\/p>\n

Wembley will host both semi-finals as well as the final. It also hosted the final of Euro 2020<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Nine venues will host the tournament, with the opening game played at the 75,000 seat Principality Stadium in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Both semi-finals and the final will take place at Wembley, the same venue where England lost to Italy on penalties in the 2020 Euros final.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everton\u2019s new home at Bramley Moore Dock, Anfield, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Etihad, Villa Park and St James\u2019 Park are amongst the other English venues.<\/p>\n

Dublin’s Aviva Stadium and Hampden Park in Glasgow are the Irish and Scottish venues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland will have to qualify for Euro 2028 despite hosting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,92,393,31425,94,4884,53673,53672,93,16,15,1764,53674],"class_list":{"0":"post-120266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-england-football","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-ireland-football","15":"tag-scotland-football","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-wales","20":"tag-wales-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114546829393431252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}