As far as you know, on February 23 the draw of European Championship 2016 qualifying group will be held in Nice. Recall that for the first time in the history, 24 teams will play in the final stage of European Championship 2016, so 23 teams will be added to the host France.
The draw will start at 13:00 Tbilisi time and it will take place in the congress-center “Acropolis”. 54 teams will be divided in 9 groups and 6 teams will be in each. France also will be in qualification, but they will play sparing-matches with all five opponents, who will be in I group. In short, the French will be beyond the competition.
Spain, Gibraltar, Azerbaijan and Armenia will not be in one group.
Calendar of qualifying matches:
2014 – September 7-9, October 9-11, October 12-14, November 14-16.
2015 – March 27-29, June 12-14, September 3-5, September 6-8, October 8-10, October 11-13.
Play-Off matches: I – November 12-14, II – November 15-17. Final stage draw – December 12. Final stage – From June10 till July 10.
Georgia is in the 5th basket:
1. Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Greece, Portugal, Russia, Bosnia.
2. Sweden, Ukraine, Croatia, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland.
3. Serbia, Turkey, Slovenia, Romania, Israel, Norway, Slovakia, Austria, Montenegro.
4. Armenia, Poland, Scotland, Finland, Latvia, Wels, Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland.
5. Belarus, Northern Ireland, Albania, Lithuania, Moldova, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus.
6. Luxemburg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Malta, Andora, San Marino, Gibraltar, Foroyar.
As we already told, France will be added to I group as the 6th, where will be 5 teams.
Finally, the desirable group version from Levan Kobiashvili. “World Sport” contacted Levan and asked to say his version.
Germany, Ireland, Norway, Wels, Georgia, San-Marino. "Kobi" also added an explanation:
“Germany because, we will meet someone strong anyway from the first basket. The important is who will meet us from the 3rd and 4th baskets, they will be the main competitors for us. Taking the 3rd place should be the real goal, besides, the good thing is that if we take the 3rd place and get into the playoff, we will not meet the Grand there”.
Ilia Nanobashvili
