Euro 2028

[wanderer]

UEFA confirm that none of the hosts will qualify automatically (Northern Ireland could not produce a venue, so not included), so the top two nations from England, Rep of Ireland, Scotland and Wales who do not qualify automatically for the Euro's will be selected based on where their finished in their qualification group.

You would imagine England will qualify under their own steam, so its the best two from Wales, us, and Ireland (and given half of Europe qualify for the Euro's these days, you would imagine it would take some doing for one of those three nations to not also make it).

[Orraloon]

What a way to get knocked out of our "own" tournament. 🤣

I know it's not really our tournament. It's England's with us tagged on for a handful of games.

 

[wanderer]

2 minutes ago, todd said:

So if England, Ireland and Wales qualify automatically and we don't, do we still get a place no matter how we finish?

Yes, with two extra slots opened up in the play off's for team's who did not qualify elsewhere

[Goozay]

I'm reading that as it's possible that a host nation might not play in the tournament. 

If Scotland, Wales, and Ireland all make an arse of qualification, only two out of the three will play at the tournament, despite all three being hosts.

Am I reading that right?

[Toepoke]

17 minutes ago, Goozay said:

I'm reading that as it's possible that a host nation might not play in the tournament. 

If Scotland, Wales, and Ireland all make an arse of qualification, only two out of the three will play at the tournament, despite all three being hosts.

Am I reading that right?

You are indeed.

There's a precedent, at Euro 2020 Azerbaijan and Romania hosted games but failed to qualify.

 

[StirlingScott]

10 minutes ago, todd said:

If all 4 of us end up in the same qualifying group then we'll all qualify anyway 😁(Unless one of us finishes bottom)

"The four host nations will each be in separate qualifying groups"

______________________

There will be 12 qualifying groups, with the group winners and eight best-placed runners-up reaching the finals.

The four host nations will each be in separate qualifying groups, with two spots allocated to the highest-ranked of those sides who don't make it.

The remaining places will be decided by play-offs between the remaining runners-up and the best-ranked 2026-27 Nations League non-qualified group winners.

The composition of those play-offs will depend on the number of spots needed for the host nations. 

• If two are used, eight teams will compete in two pathways for the final two spots, with single leg semi-finals and finals.

• If one is used then 12 countries will compete in three pathways for the three remaining spots, with single leg semi-finals and finals.

• If none of the four places are used by host nations then eight teams will contest four home-and-away play-offs, with the winners going through.

Edited May 21, 2025 by StirlingScott

[mccaughey85]

Sounds very unlikely we don't make it. 

You would think at least 1 of us, Ireland or Wales would qualify given the backdoor route these days. Even if all three don't qualify then we would have to be the worst placed team out of the three.

[mccaughey85]

10 hours ago, todd said:

This will be the one time England don't top their group, if we end up needing them to

What situation would we need them to necessarily top their group?

Just qualifying is all we need them to do. 

Don't think theres much to worry about. Even we can't fuck up this situation. Chances of us not getting to the euros must be very slim.

Even if us, Wales and Ireland don't qualify then we would have to be worst placed team out of those three.

Personally I reckon all 4 nations will be playing at euro 2028.

Edited May 23, 2025 by mccaughey85

[Tartan blood]

3 hours ago, mccaughey85 said:

What situation would we need them to necessarily top their group?

Just qualifying is all we need them to do. 

Don't think theres much to worry about. Even we can't fuck up this situation. Chances of us not getting to the euros must be very slim.

Even if us, Wales and Ireland don't qualify then we would have to be worst placed team out of those three.

Personally I reckon all 4 nations will be playing at euro 2028.

I think Uefa agree, and that's why they've decided to do it this way. It also means we don't have 4 countries spending a year playing meaningless friendlies. Competitive games are what you need to prepare for a tournament. This is better.

On paper, we are better than Wales and Ireland. If we are lucky with injuries and get our act together, we should be comfortably placed above Wales and Ireland.

[mccaughey85]

4 minutes ago, todd said:

I got the impression that topping the group was the only way to guarantee qualification this time around as there was mention of "best" 2nd places qualifying, not just 2nd place itself

Ok fair enough. Didn't realise that. 

Either way you would still expect England to top their group or be one of the best 2nd placed teams.

[wanderer]

Its probably going to be harder for us not to qualify than it is to actually qualify.

12 group winners and 8 best runners up automatically qualify.

Also, because we are in Group B of the Nations League, its more than likely that we will probably end up with a play-off spot (given you would expect 99% of Pool A teams to qualify and probably 50% of pool B teams to also qualify).

Even if Tuchel does not extend his contract beyond the World Cup, imagine England can offer quite a carrot to any manager to get them through the qualification process no problem, and you would hope at least one from us and Ireland can get a second place finish.

I think UEFA expect at least 2 of the 4 nations will qualify (given since the tournament expanded, at least two of the nations in question have qualified), and set it out that there is not 4 nations twiddling their thumbs looking for friendlies. 

[mccaughey85]

17 minutes ago, wanderer said:

Its probably going to be harder for us not to qualify than it is to actually qualify.

12 group winners and 8 best runners up automatically qualify.

Also, because we are in Group B of the Nations League, its more than likely that we will probably end up with a play-off spot (given you would expect 99% of Pool A teams to qualify and probably 50% of pool B teams to also qualify).

Even if Tuchel does not extend his contract beyond the World Cup, imagine England can offer quite a carrot to any manager to get them through the qualification process no problem, and you would hope at least one from us and Ireland can get a second place finish.

I think UEFA expect at least 2 of the 4 nations will qualify (given since the tournament expanded, at least two of the nations in question have qualified), and set it out that there is not 4 nations twiddling their thumbs looking for friendlies. 

We should be using this as a huge incentive for our next manager. 

Basically he gets a guarantee of taking us to a tournament. Thats never been on offer to a potential Scotland manager. Might get us a slightly better manager than we normally do.

[wanderer]

24 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

We should be using this as a huge incentive for our next manager. 

Basically he gets a guarantee of taking us to a tournament. Thats never been on offer to a potential Scotland manager. Might get us a slightly better manager than we normally do.

I can actually see Clarke signing a contract extension that takes him up to the next Euros and stepping down after that.

[Tartan blood]

14 minutes ago, wanderer said:

I can actually see Clarke signing a contract extension that takes him up to the next Euros and stepping down after that.

If we have a good world cup qualification and make a decent showing of ourselves at the World cup, I'd want him to stay till 2028. It's really not that far away.

[mccaughey85]

2 hours ago, wanderer said:

I can actually see Clarke signing a contract extension that takes him up to the next Euros and stepping down after that.

Yeh theres definitely a possibility of him doing that although this place might go into meltdown at that prospect especially if he fails to get us to the world cup.

[wanderer]

11 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yeh theres definitely a possibility of him doing that although this place might go into meltdown at that prospect especially if he fails to get us to the world cup.

I think as long as we can get into the play off's, and even if we do lose them, we avoid something like the Ukraine and Greece games at Hampden, even if we missed out on the World Cup, he would probably still sign a new deal to take him to the Euro's and go out after a tournament on home soil (apparently all the host nations will play all their group matches at their national stadium.... so its not like we will have 2 games at Hampden and one in Manchester) 

[mccaughey85]

21 minutes ago, wanderer said:

I think as long as we can get into the play off's, and even if we do lose them, we avoid something like the Ukraine and Greece games at Hampden, even if we missed out on the World Cup, he would probably still sign a new deal to take him to the Euro's and go out after a tournament on home soil (apparently all the host nations will play all their group matches at their national stadium.... so its not like we will have 2 games at Hampden and one in Manchester) 

Yeh I don't expect us to qualify for the world cup so I won't hold that against Clarke but I do expect to make the play offs. 

Do we trust Clarke for another crack at getting us out of the group stage at the next euros?

He's already had two gos at it and has failed so it's a big decision to make wether he should get another chance.

[wanderer]

2 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

Yeh I don't expect us to qualify for the world cup so I won't hold that against Clarke but I do expect to make the play offs. 

Do we trust Clarke for another crack at getting us out of the group stage at the next euros?

He's already had two gos at it and has failed so it's a big decision to make wether he should get another chance.

Probably trust Clarke more with the current crop of players at the next Euros than I would with McInnes coming in and trying to put his stamp on things right off the bat from a play off defeat and then the qualifiers to get through (injuries can not be helped, but it does seem to be a factor not only with us that a number of teams go into the Euros with half their squad looking dead on their feet, and this has been our major problem at the last two tournaments).

[mccaughey85]

1 minute ago, wanderer said:

Probably trust Clarke more with the current crop of players at the next Euros than I would with McInnes coming in and trying to put his stamp on things right off the bat from a play off defeat and then the qualifiers to get through (injuries can not be helped, but it does seem to be a factor not only with us that a number of teams go into the Euros with half their squad looking dead on their feet, and this has been our major problem at the last two tournaments).

Might get someone better than McInnes especially with euro 2028 being pretty much guaranteed.

I have backed Clarke but he has had his chances and another manager maybe deserves the free hit that the euros effectively is. 

[kumnio]

3 hours ago, wanderer said:

I can actually see Clarke signing a contract extension that takes him up to the next Euros and stepping down after that.

Please don't try to kill me.

[Barry89]

11 hours ago, wanderer said:

Its probably going to be harder for us not to qualify than it is to actually qualify.

12 group winners and 8 best runners up automatically qualify.

Also, because we are in Group B of the Nations League, its more than likely that we will probably end up with a play-off spot (given you would expect 99% of Pool A teams to qualify and probably 50% of pool B teams to also qualify).

Even if Tuchel does not extend his contract beyond the World Cup, imagine England can offer quite a carrot to any manager to get them through the qualification process no problem, and you would hope at least one from us and Ireland can get a second place finish.

I think UEFA expect at least 2 of the 4 nations will qualify (given since the tournament expanded, at least two of the nations in question have qualified), and set it out that there is not 4 nations twiddling their thumbs looking for friendlies. 

They've changed the Nations League play-off qualification for the Euros to mirror what is in place for the World Cup play-offs. It's only non-qualified Nations League group winners that can get those places so it's probably not more than likely we end up with a play-off spot via the Nations League since we'll need to win our League B group to be in with a chance.

[Texas Pete]

On 5/22/2025 at 1:42 AM, mccaughey85 said:

Sounds very unlikely we don't make it. 

You would think at least 1 of us, Ireland or Wales would qualify given the backdoor route these days. Even if all three don't qualify then we would have to be the worst placed team out of the three.

It will all be decided before the playoffs take place so Wales or Ireland (or even England I suppose but this is less likely) qualifying via the playoffs will have no bearing on whether we qualify or not (unless we get them in the playoffs of course which I suspect will not be possible). 

[Sempre]

Confirmed that Hampden will host six games. 

The small print says Scotland will play all group games at Hampden if they qualify directly. Which suggests if we got through via a play-off we might be travelling around (which, personally, I would prefer. Travelling bit I mean, not the having to get through a play-off). 
 

Anyway, if we qualify directly, we would be in group F. We have four routes to the final.

All group games at Hampden, followed by:-

Win group: Last 16 at Hampden, quarter-final in Dublin, semi & final at Wembley.

Finish second: Last 16 at Villa Park, quarters back at Hampden, then off to Wembley.

Finish third (there are two possibles)

Option one: Last 16 in Newcastle (probably against England if they win their group), followed by every game being at Wembley (not surprising considering it's England's proposed route).

Option two: Last 16 in Manchester, quarters in Cardiff (could be against Wales or England if either of them finish second in their group).

The two most modern stadiums in the tournament - Tottenham and Everton's - don't appear to be open to us at all, UNLESS we qualify through a play-off. 

[romanticscot]

I think it does the Team good for Clarke to leave when his contract ends and give his successor(Steven Naismith) as low risk of a campaign as your ever likely going to see to grow into the job. If he makes it to the World Cup, I actually wouldn't mind him staying for another two years but thats a tough gig for the next guy and a hard sell. A very attainable tournament is far more attractive...that said we might be a pot 1 Team for the World Cup in 2030(dearie me that felt strange typing that) on the virtue of having a decent euro 2026 and surrounding nations leagues so whose to say the caliber of Manager interested. 

[exile]

On 5/23/2025 at 12:32 PM, wanderer said:

Probably trust Clarke more with the current crop of players at the next Euros than I would with McInnes coming in and trying to put his stamp on things right off the bat from a play off defeat and then the qualifiers to get through (injuries can not be helped, but it does seem to be a factor not only with us that a number of teams go into the Euros with half their squad looking dead on their feet, and this has been our major problem at the last two tournaments).

I wonder if there is any chance we would for once benefit from several of our players being less jaded this time due to extended bench time?