© EuroFootball.com
Next week, on January 27, in Switzerland, the draw for the qualification matches of the 2008 European Championship will take place. The drawing ceremony will be attended by the head coach of the Lithuanian national team Algimantas Liubinskas, the president of the Lithuanian Football Federation Liutauras Varanavicius, the general director of the LFF Julius Kvedaras, and the team director Robertas Tautkus.
"Naturally, the best teams to be drawn for the Lithuanian Football Federation would be from wealthy countries. This is a reality - by getting wealthy countries, the Lithuanian national football team will attract many more sponsors who would find it beneficial to advertise in matches where Lithuania faces a strong country. At the same time, the federation needs funds, which are essential for all Lithuanian football, because we receive nothing from the government," said Algimantas Liubinskas to the website Futbolas.lt.
"Until the draw is made, I don't want to make any predictions. I can only say that we don't want to get teams from former Soviet republics. It's better to meet teams from the West than from the East.
From the first pot (Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, England, Czech Republic, France, Sweden) we would like to draw England, France, and definitely not the Czechs - although the football level is really high, there would be no financial benefit.
In the second pot (Germany, Croatia, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Spain, Romania) Germans and Italians would be most favorable for us. Turks, Poles, and Romanians are not so favorable for us.
From the third group (Serbia and Montenegro, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Slovakia) I would choose Norway or Denmark.
In the fourth group (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Belgium, Latvia, Israel, Scotland, Slovenia) it would be good if we could be in a group with either the Scots or Belgians.
From the fifth group (Hungary, Finland, Estonia, Wales, Lithuania, Albania, Iceland) I would only pick the Finns.
In the sixth group (Georgia, Macedonia, Belarus, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Moldova) the best would be the Northern Irish, other countries would not be valuable.
And the most unfavorable, in my opinion, is the last, seventh group (Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Andorra, Malta, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, San Marino) - I couldn't pick any useful country," reasoned A. Liubinskas.
According to the coach, he analyzed the groups looking at the financial benefit: "I don't want to talk about national teams in terms of football level yet, but after the draw, I will gladly discuss the groups, especially ours, where Lithuania will be."
