The group stage for the 2019 European Mixed Team Championship qualification was conducted live today, and it is now up to the competing nations to bid for hosting their group stage.
An important key date for qualification to the 2019 European Mixed Team Championships (EMTC19) is the day of the draw for the group stage. Now that the groups are determined the next step will be to decide which of the nations will host the respective group stage.
Badminton Europe Senior Manager Jimmy Andersen is excited to see who will bid for the 7 events:
- England has already confirmed that they will be hosting Group 1 – the other seeded teams will have to announce no later than 16 August if they wish to host, or if the second ranked team in the group shall be offered the chance.
Close group stage ahead
Due to no final host for have been found at this stage, it was decided that only the holder, Denmark, will qualify directly for the final. The remaining 30 countries will therefore have to qualify for the final through the qualification stage being played in December 2018.
Group 7 is divided into two subgroups, where the winner of each subgroup will play a final to determine which of them qualifies to the final eliminating event in February 2019.
- Group 2 looks interesting with Ukraine and Scotland being strong opponents to the reigning silver medalists from Russia. It shall also be interesting to see which team who takes the home advantage, says Andersen about the outcome of the draw.
- Group 6 with three even teams in Spain, Poland and Czech Republic – we can see a few matches ending 3-2 in this group.
The draw for the qualification of the 2019 European Mixed Team Championships is the following:
GROUP 1:
England
Hungary
Belgium
Italy
GROUP 2:
Russia
Moldova
Ukraine
Scotland
GROUP 3:
Netherlands
Switzerland
Iceland
Portugal
GROUP 4:
France
Slovakia
Estonia
Faroe Islands
GROUP 5:
Germany
Austria
Slovenia
Sweden
GROUP 6:
Spain
Lithuania
Poland
Czech Republic
GROUP 7 – subgroup 1:
Bulgaria
Ireland
Finland
GROUP 7 – subgroup 2:
Norway
Latvia
Israel
The qualification event will begin from 6th December and the final event will take place from 13 February 2019. The host for the final and eliminating event is still to be announced.