BILBAO, Spain (AP) — UEFA's Executive Committee on Wednesday approved an unprecedented qualifying system for the 2028 European Championship, with hosts England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland participating in the preliminaries.
The four teams will be drawn separately into the 12 qualifying groups, with the winners and the eight best runners-up advancing directly to the final tournament that will be held across nine venues in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Two spots in the final 24-team tournament will be reserved for the best-ranked host nations who did not qualify as group winners or best runners-up. The remaining berths will be assigned through playoffs between the other runners-up in the qualifying groups and the best ranked non-qualified group winners in the 2026-27 Nations League.
Depending on the number of berths used by the host nations, the number of final tournament spots decided by the playoffs may vary between two and four, UEFA said.
The tournament schedule is expected to be released later this year.
The Executive Committee met just ahead of the Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham in Bilbao.
A decision on the hosts for the 2027 Champions League final and the 2027 Women’s Champions League final was set to take place on Wednesday. But it has been postponed “for operational reasons” until the next Executive Committee meeting in September.
The committee also approved an increase in the number of players who can be registered by teams in this year's Nations League finals from 23 to a maximum of 26, “considering the dynamics of the end of season as well as an increase in activities over the summer of 2025.”
On the club benefits program, UEFA said that for the next cycle linked to Euro 2028, 240 million euros ($272 million) will be distributed in accordance with the memorandum of understanding between UEFA and the European Club Association. UEFA said 7 million euros ($7.9 million) remains available for distribution from the previous club benefits cycle.
After a proposal from the ECA, UEFA said that it was agreed to shift 3 million euros ($3.4 million) of the leftover from the 2020-24 cycle to the club benefit program for Women’s Euro 2025, increasing its size from 6 million euros ($6.8 million) to 9 million euros ($10.2 million).
The club benefits program is the clubs' share of the Euros revenue. It's the daily rate UEFA pays to clubs whose players are called up to national teams. It was created in 2008 to recognize the newly-launched ECA as a more democratic representative of teams’ interests.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press
