HVAR, Croatia: European football federation UEFA has set out the parameters for the draw for 2024 European Championship qualifying competition. . The draw takes place on October 9 in Frankfurt without Russia who remain under internationa; suspension. . Details have been set out in the following UEFA statement after an executive committee meeting in Hvar, Croatia: . * Germany, the team of the UEFA EURO 2024 host association, qualifies automatically for the final tournament and is therefore not taking part in the qualifying draw. *All Russian teams are currently suspended following the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee of 28 February 2022 which has further been confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on 15 July 2022. Russia is therefore not included in the UEFA European Football Championship 2022-24 qualifying draw. * 53 national associations participate in the qualifying draw which will allocate the participants to the 10 groups, seven groups of five teams and three groups of six teams. * The 10 group winners and the 10 group runners-up qualify for the final tournament. The remaining three spots will be decided via the play-offs to be played in March 2024. . *The 53 participating teams are seeded according to the overall 2022/23 UEFA Nations League rankings and divided into seven pots. . Other UEFA decisions: . Poreč, Croatia, was appointed as the host venue for the final tournament of the 2022/23 Under-19 Futsal EURO. . Earlier in the day, the Executive Committee attended a Football in Schools grassroots festival, which saw more than 80 girls and boys play on mini pitches, alongside football legends and the UEFA president. . Launched in 2020, the Football in Schools initiative, aims to see more than 2.8 million children and over 81,000 schools take part by 2024. . After two years of the programme, around 2.4 million children, from 44,000 schools are already participating. . Equally as impressive, over 100,000 schoolteachers have already been educated to deliver footballing training sessions, which easily exceeds the initial target of 63,000. . Over the four-year period, around €24 million is being invested in developing and promoting life skills, such as fair-play, respect, teamwork, and leadership through the playing of football at school. |