No easy route to Euro 2028! Home Nations including England will have to qualify for European Championship despite hosting tournament

In a significant departure from long-standing tradition, UEFA has confirmed that host nations for the 2028 European Championship will not receive automatic entry into the tournament. England, Scotland, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland, who are set to jointly host the event, will all be required to compete in the qualification process in order to secure their places at the finals.

UEFA has introduced a revised qualification process for the 2028 edition to accommodate the unique host arrangement. A total of 24 teams will participate in the final tournament. The pathway to qualification begins with traditional group stages, where 12 group winners and eight of the highest-ranking second-placed teams will qualify directly. That accounts for 20 of the 24 available spots. The remaining four slots will be filled through a combination of host nation backup allocations and a play-off round that includes Nations League group winners and non-qualified runners-up.

In recognition of the challenge posed to host nations without the benefit of automatic qualification, UEFA has reserved up to two places for the best-performing hosts who do not qualify through their groups. These nations will be ranked based on their performance in the qualifiers, and the top two among them, if necessary, will be awarded spots in the final tournament. However, if fewer than two of the host nations fail to qualify outright, the leftover spots will be reallocated via an elaborate play-off format that considers results from the 2026–27 UEFA Nations League.

The structure of the play-offs is fluid, depending on how many host nation slots are required. If two host nations need spots, eight teams will battle it out in two single-elimination paths—each path featuring one semi-final and one final, all played over a single leg.

If only one host requires a place, then 12 teams will enter three separate brackets to fight for the remaining three tournament slots. Should none of the host nations need the reserved places, all four remaining positions will be determined through home-and-away play-offs involving eight teams.

The full qualification draw and schedule for Euro 2028 is expected to be revealed in the autumn of 2025. Until then, all four co-hosting nations will be placed into different qualifying groups to ensure fairness and avoid direct competition between the hosts during the qualifying campaign.