Playoff picture should become clearer after tonight

UNITED: Manager Vera Pauw speaks to her players during a Republic of Ireland Women training session at National Training Centre in Senec, Slovakia. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

By tonight, at least some of the haze around the most complex playoff system for a tournament should clear.

Only Ireland, Scotland and Austria have so far guaranteed their runners-up slots across nine groups, with plenty to play for in the other pools.

Clarity over the teams doesn’t remove confusion over the process ahead of Friday’s playoff draw so let’s recap.

Of the nine runners-up across the groups, three teams with the best points total bypass the ‘semi-final’ hurdle within Europe’s section of the playoff series to be contested between October 3-11.

The remaining six get paired at the draw into three one-off deciders at the semi-final stage.

Whichever three emerge from that set of games will meet the best three in the final phase.

From these three winners, two with the best records over the group and playoffs campaign progress directly to the showpiece.

That will be judged by their points total over the qualifying campaign – minus results against the lowest teams in six-nation groups – coupled with the outcome of the playoff final.

Interestingly, finalists who progress without extra-time or penalties will gain more points because results are tallied at 90 minutes.

The third of these teams drops into the intercontinental playoff system next February, staged by the co-hosts for the finals four months later.

The European team seem certain to be seeded in that blitz as it will be determined by world ranking.

Already confirmed for that event, effectively a dry run for the tournament, are Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Cameroon, Senegal, Haiti, Panama, Chile, Paraguay and Papua New Guinea. Uefa’s representative will complete the set of 10.