France top seed

UEFA to decide on unified transfer periods, 2004 qualifying

UEFA's executive committee was likely to give its blessing to an agreement reached last month between Europe's top 11 leagues on stipulating two common transfer windows for national and international transfers, one in the winter and one in the summer, a UEFA official said.

"Obviously we're sympathetic toward that agreement," the official said on condition of anonymity.

In December, UEFA's Professional Football Committee, comprising the top 11 leagues, said it wants to limit transfers in the summer to between the date when a country's season ends and Aug. 31, and in the winter between Jan. 1-31.

For countries whose seasons are based on the calendar year, rather than the sporting year, the summer window would be between July 1-Aug. 31 and the winter period between Dec. 15-Jan. 31.

The deal will become binding after all of Europe's 51 national soccer associations give their consent.

Portuguese Soccer Federation president Gilberto Madail welcomed the possibility of a pan-European deal to regulate transfers and hoped the agreement could be extended to the authorities of other continents.

"With the situation in European soccer at the moment it's better to make regulations and have everything harmonized rather than have each federation decide for itself," Madail said.

Euro 2004 Seedings List of seedings ahead of Friday's qualifying tournament draw for the 2004 European soccer championship finals in Portugal: POT A 1. France (reigning champions) 2. Sweden 3. Spain 4. Czech Republic 5. Germany 6. Ireland 7. Romania 8. Italy 9. Belgium 10. Turkey POT B 11. Russia 12. Croata 13. Denmark 14. Netherlands 15. Yugoslavia 16. Poland 17. England 18. Slovenia 19. Ukraine 20. Scotland POT C 21. Austria 22. Norway 23. Slovakia 24. Israel 25. Switzerland 26. Iceland 27. Bulgaria 28. Finland 29. Greece 30. Hungary POT D 31. Cyprus 32. Bosnia 33. Belarus 34. Wales 35. Estonia 36. Latvia 37. Northern Ireland 38. Georgia 39. Macedonia 40. Lithuania POT E 41. Armenia 42. Moldova 43. Albania 44. Faroe Islands 45. Azerbaijan 46. Liechtenstein 47. San Marino 48. Malta 49. Luxembourg 50. Andorra --Reuters

At its closed-door meeting in this northern Portuguese city, the executive committee also was expected to decide which agency will be granted the marketing rights for the lucrative Champions League competition.

Two agencies -- IMG and Team Marketing -- have been short-listed for the contract between 2003 and 2006.

Snags remain, however, on the sale of Champions League television rights.

The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, last year expressed objections about UEFA's allocation of exclusive TV rights. That policy may fall foul of EU competition law, the commission warned.

UEFA has established two working groups to scrutinize those concerns while talks with the commission continue. The working groups were to present their status reports in Porto.

The 15-man executive committee's decisions were to be announced on Thursday.

The UEFA officials also were due to finalize the procedures to be used in Friday's draw for the qualifying rounds of the Euro 2004 soccer championship.

The executive committee has already decided to adopt new rules for the qualifying phase which involves 51 national teams.

The qualifiers are to be played in 10 groups of five teams each, with the winners of each group securing berths in the finals. Portugal automatically qualifies as host country.

The remaining five finalists are to be determined in five two-leg playoff games.

The 10 seeded countries in Friday's draw are reigning champion France, Sweden, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Belgium and Turkey.

The seedings were determined by the results in qualifying for the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2000.

The Euro 2004 qualifying phase runs from Sept. 7 to Nov. 19, 2003.

The finals open June 12 and close July 4.

France top seed, England second tier in 2004 draw

NYON, Switzerland (Reuters) -- Holders France will be top seeds in Friday's draw for the Euro 2004 qualifying tournament, alongside the likes of Germany, Italy and Spain, UEFA announced on Wednesday.

Ireland, Belgium and Turkey are also in a 10-team top flight, while World Cup hopefuls England are in the second tier with countries such as Slovenia, Ukraine and Scotland.

The 50 countries taking part in qualifying have already been divided into five pots, from A to E, ranked according to UEFA coefficients.

Friday's draw at Santa Maria da Feira, Porto will see a team from each pot allocated to one of 10 qualifying groups.

The other teams joining France in pot A are the Czech Republic, Romania, and Sweden.

Others in pot B include Russia, Croatia and the Netherlands.

The coefficients are based on teams' performances in qualifying for Euro 2000 and this year's World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan. The latter only has been used for Belgium and the Dutch, who qualified for Euro 2000 as joint hosts.

The winners of the 10 groups will go through to the finals, being staged in Portugal from June 12 to July 4 2004.

The 10 runners-up will face home-and-away playoff matches to determine the remaining five to join the host nation in the final 16.

Qualifying will run from September 2002 to October 2003, with the playoffs in November 2003.