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Guide to the European 2008 Finals
Austria and Switzerland
The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, more commonly referred to as Euro 2008, will take place in Austria and Switzerland, from 7 June to 29 June 2008. It is the second in a series of three successful joint bids in the competition's history, alongside the 2000 European Football Championship, hosted by Belgium/Holland and the 2012 competition in which is being held in Poland and Ukraine.
A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament. Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts; with Austria making their first appearance in the tournament. The remaining 14 teams consist of; Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Czech Republic, Holland, turkey, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Greece.
In 2004, the Zurich venue became a problem for the organisers. Originally, the Hardturm stadium was to be renovated and used as the city's venue, but legal challenges delayed the plan to a point that would not have allowed the ground to be used in 2008. This created a problem, as the agreement between UEFA and the organizers stipulated that four venues would be used in each country. The problem was solved when the organizers proposed renovating Letzigrund instead; UEFA approved the revised plan in January 2005. The Letzigrund stadium will be ready in September 2007. The qualifying process commenced a month after the 2006 World Cup. Austria and Switzerland have already qualified for the tournament finals as host nations.
The qualifying format has been changed compared to previous tournaments. The winners and runners-up from seven groups automatically qualified for the Championship, with the hosts filling the other two slots in the 16-team tournament. The change means there will be no play-offs between teams finishing in second place in the groups – they instead will qualify directly for the finals. Teams finishing in third place will not have any further opportunity to qualify under the new legislation. Six of the qualifying groups contain seven teams, and the other, Group A, contains eight.
