Pots filled up for Regions' Cup draw

The procedure for the 2008/09 UEFA Regions' Cup draw has been unveiled with 41 national representatives to compete over three rounds in Europe's top amateur tournament.

Basic set-up
The draw in Nyon in 26 February at 12.30CET will decide the make up of three preliminary round groups and eight subsequent intermediary round sections. The winners in each of the intermediary mini-tournaments earn a place in the final tournament, to be hosted by one of the eight qualifying nations in June 2009. In principle, the hosts should be selected by the end of 2008.

Preliminary round
The three preliminary round groups will be contested between 1 August and 20 September 2008. San Marino, Israel and Lithuania have all volunteered to host a mini-tournament, with teams representing the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Liechtenstein, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Malta, Sweden, Turkey and Wales being drawn to face them. The winners of each group will earn a place in the intermediary round.

Qualifying places
The winners of preliminary round Groups 1 and 2 – hosted by San Marino and Israel – will take their place in the Central/West pot for the intermediary round while the Group 3 winners will go into the draw for the Central/East section. Four four-team mini-tournaments will take place in each geographical region with the winners of each going through to the finals.

Remaining slots
In the Central/West section, Germany, Italy, Croatia and France have volunteered to host Groups 1 to 4 respectively, with two preliminary round winners, England, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Belgium being drawn to fill the remaining 12 slots in the four sections.

Host nations
In the Central/East section, Russia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia will host Groups 5 to 8, with the remaining contenders coming from preliminary round Group 3, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, Finland, reigning champions Poland, Greece, Moldova, Ukraine, 2007 hosts Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Mini-tournaments with no preliminary round teams involved will take place between 1 August and 31 December 2008, with the remaining sections being played between 1 October 2008 and 30 April 2009.