The draw occurred on 25 January 2002 in
Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal. 50 teams were divided into five drawing pots based on the latest 2001-edition of the
UEFA National Team Coefficient ranking, that had calculated an average of the team's points per game achieved combined in the
Euro 2000 qualifiers and
2002 World Cup qualifiers. The seeding list was however subject to some few minor modifications: •
France (ranked 11) were seeded first as the defending champions (title holders). Consequently, all teams ranked above them from 1 to 10 moved down one seeding place lower than their rankings. •
Portugal (ranked 4) was not seeded, as they did not participate in the qualifying tournament due to already having qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts. Consequently, all teams ranked below them moved up one seeding place higher than their ranking position. Ten groups were formed by drawing one team from each of the five pots.
Note: The
UEFA National Team Coefficient ranking automatically had taken into account in its ranking calculation, that some teams only played one of the two preceding qualification tournaments. Since
Belgium and
Netherlands qualified automatically for UEFA Euro 2000 as co-hosts, the coefficient factored only their 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying record. France had also qualified automatically for the 2002 FIFA World Cup as
1998 FIFA World Cup Champions, meaning the coefficient used only the UEFA Euro 2000 qualification record for France. ==Summary==