/world sport
NYON, Switzerland -- Former champions Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands could end up in the same group at next year's European Championships finals after UEFA announced the seedings for the draw in Lucerne on December 2.
Greece are among the top seeds for the Euro 2008 finals having won the tournament in Portugal four years ago.
The Dutch earned the last spot in Pot 1, joining defending champions Greece -- they had the best record of any Euro 2008 qualifying nation -- and co-hosts, Switzerland and Austria.
The seedings were determined according to a coefficient calculated with matches won and lost and goals scored and conceded during qualifying for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008.
Teams in Pot 2 will be Croatia, world champions Italy, the Czech Republic and Sweden, with Romania, Germany, Portugal and Spain in Pot 3.
The final pot contains UEFA European Championship finals newcomers Poland, World Cup runners-up France, Turkey and Russia.
"The system is based on the results of the qualifying competitions -- a cycle of two competitions, that is to say one EURO qualifying competition and one World Cup qualifying competition," UEFA's professional football director Giorgio Marchetti told the UEFA Web site.
"The coefficients are drawn up by dividing the total number of points earned by each team during the two qualifying competitions by the number of matches played. From this point of view, the system is simple, transparent and objective, there is no interference."
He added: "In the case that teams have the same coefficient over the two qualifying competitions -- which is the case for Romania and Germany, and Turkey and Russia -- we apply the coefficient over the last (Euro) competition, the average goal difference of the last competition, the average number of goals scored, average number of away goals scored and finally, if everything is still equal, we would draw lots."
Marchetti confirmed: "The hosts and the reigning champions are always seeded, and this is the case for 2008 -- the hosts are Switzerland and Austria, Greece is the third top seed as 2004 European champions, and the top team in the ranking is the fourth top seed."
The Netherlands had the best coefficient, although they lost 2-1 at Belarus on Wednesday.
Switzerland will be placed as the top team in Group A and Austria the top team in Group B -- with next month's draw kicking off with the placing of Greece and the Dutch at the head of Group C or D. E-mail to a friend 
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