Reigning European Champions, Roberto Mancini’s national team will be in pot 1 in the draw for the qualifying rounds of the 2024 European Championship in Germany. The draw will take place at 12.00 CEST on Sunday 9 October in Frankfurt (live on Rai 2 and Sky Sport 24), where in the presence of the Coach and the Federal President Gabriele Gravina the 53 national teams involved in the qualifying round, placed into different pots based on their overall ranking in the UEFA Nations League 2022/2023, and will be split into seven groups of five teams and three groups of six. Along with the other three Nations League finalists (Croatia, Netherlands and Spain), Italy will definitely be placed in a group of five teams in order to participate in the Final Four scheduled for next June.

Despite being amongst the top seeds, the Azzurri still run the risk of meeting the likes of France or England, both in pot 2, along the way, whilst along with the other Nations League finalists and Germany who qualified as the host country, they will avoid Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland and Poland. Among the stakes of the draw, from which UEFA have decided to exclude Russia, the following match-ups are also prohibited: Armenia-Azerbaijan, Belarus-Ukraine, Gibraltar-Spain, Kosovo-Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo-Serbia. In each group there can be a maximum of two teams from the eight countries which have extreme cold temperatures in the winter (Belarus, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway), as well as travel time being limited to no more than eight hours to avoid too difficult a journey for the national teams.

The qualification matches will be played between March and Novermber 2023. The ten group winners and ten runners-up will qualify automatically for the the final phase, whilst the remaining three places will be decided in March 2024 by means of a play-off (semi-final and finals). Twelve national teams will qualify for the play-off phase and will compete for a pass to the final phase of the European Championship by playing three separate rounds of four teams each. The play-offs will be entered by the winners of the Nations League groups (from League A to League C) unless they have already qualified for the final stage of the tournament directly from the European group stage. If a winner of the UEFA Nations League groups from Leagues A, B and C has qualified directly for the final phase, the next best-placed team in the league standings will enter the play-offs.

The pots for the EURO 2024 draw

Pot 1 - UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE pot
Netherlands
Croatia
Spain
ITALY

POT 1
Denmark
Portugal
Belgium
Hungary
Switzerland
Poland

POT 2
France
Austria
Czech Republic
England
Wales
Israel
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Serbia
Scotland
Finland

POT 3
Ukraine
Iceland
Norvegia
Slovenia
Repubblica of Ireland
Albania
Montenegro
Romania
Sweden
Armenia

POT 4
Georgia
Greece
Turkey
Kazakhstan
Luxembourg
Azerbaijan
Kosovo
Bulgaria
Faroe Islands
North Macedonia

POT 5
Slovakia
Northern Ireland
Cyprus
Belarus
Lithuania
Gibraltar
Estonia
Latvia
Moldova
Malta

POT 6
Andorra
San Marino
Liechtenstein

EURO 2024 dates
23–25/03/2023 matchday 1
26–28/03/2023 matchday 2
16–17/06/2023 matchday 3 (Italy will be involved in the Final Four of the Nations League)
19–20/06/2023 matchday 4 (Italy will be involved in the Final Four of the Nations League)
07–09/09/2023 matchday 5
10– 12/09/2023 matchday 6
12–14/10/2023 matchday 7
15–17/10/2023 matchday 8
16–18/11/2023 matchday 9
19–21/11/2023 matchday 10

Play-offs
21/03/2024 play-off Semifinals
26/03/2024 play-off Final

Finals
14/06/2024-14/07/2024