England were among the other countries in contention, along with Sweden and Turkey.

Under UEFA’s revised qualification format, England will play in a mini-group of three teams in September 2006, with one home game and one away game, with the top teams progressing to a two-leg play-off in October. The seven play-off winners will join Holland in the finals.

UEFA also confirmed that Portugal would host the next year's Championship. England narrowly missed out on qualification, losing 1-2 on aggregate in a play-off against France last month.