UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 7 September 2014 – 17 November 2015 |
| Teams | 53 (from 1 confederation) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 266 |
| Goals scored | 694 (2.61 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Robert Lewandowski (13 goals)
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The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from September 2014 to November 2015 to determine the 23 UEFA member men's national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts France in the UEFA Euro 2016 final tournament.
A total of 53 national teams participated in this qualifying process, with Gibraltar taking part for the first time. The draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis, Nice, on 23 February 2014. Sides were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, which were announced along with the draw procedure and final tournament match schedule after the 23–24 January Executive Committee meeting in Nyon.
All UEFA member associations are eligible to compete in the qualifying competition, with the hosts (France) qualifying directly to the finals tournament. The other 53 teams are drawn into eight groups of six teams (Groups A–H) and one group of five teams (Group I). The group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team (with the results against the sixth-placed team discarded) directly qualify to the finals. The eight remaining third-placed teams contest two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers for the finals.
For the qualifying group stage, the teams were seeded into six pots (Pots 1–5 with 9 teams and Pot 6 with 8 teams) for the qualifying group stage draw according to the UEFA national team coefficient rankings, with the title holders (Spain) automatically seeded into Pot 1. Each nation's coefficient is generated by calculating:
UEFA stated that nations with the largest markets in terms of contribution to the European Qualifiers revenue would be drawn into one of the groups containing six teams. They include England, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. UEFA has also stated in their regulations that "the teams drawn into the group of five teams will have France added to their group for the purpose of playing centralised friendlies".
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