Football: Long haul to the finals: European Championship expanding

THE birth of so many new nations will mean a long haul for countries attempting to join England in the 1996 European Championship finals.

There will be 46 teams going into the draw in Manchester on 22 January and they will face a slog through 10 qualifying matches in pursuit of one of the 15 available places. They will be drawn into six groups of six teams and two of five, each headed by a seeded team.

The group winners and runners-up in the six-team section will qualify, but those who finish second in the five-team goups will face a two-leg play-off.

Uefa, European football's governing body, will announce the seedings later, along with the performance-based pools from which the remainder will be drawn.