This means that the fixtures will have to be drawn up by UEFA. Those present agreed to recommend to UEFA to carry out a draw during the UEFA Congress which will be held in Tel Aviv on March 25. UEFA however reserves the right to ask the associations to a location and a date.
Following changes in the international calendar by FIFA, qualifying matches will no longer be played on Saturdays and Wednesdays. From now onwards, games will be played on Fridays or Saturdays and Tuesdays. The reason behind this change was to give players the chance to return to their clubs on Wednesdays rather than Thursdays.
The following dates are reserved for group matches in qualifying:
a) 3/4 and 7 September 2010
b) 8/9 and 12 October 2010
c) 25/26 and 29 March 2011
d) 3/4 and 7 June 2011
e) 2/3 and 6 September 2011
f) 7/8 and 11 October 2011
The six teams in the group are Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia and Malta. In Athens, Malta was represented by MFA President Dr Joe Mifsud, national coach John Buttigieg and national team manager Ivan Vella.