It's time for a new and fresh tournament mode for the prestigious European Mixed Team Championships. For the first time, the 2015 event will not be played as an one-week event to crown the best European team. A qualification process was introduced to allow the best teams to enter the finals which will be played in 2015 in Leuven, Belgium.

Five teams (Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Russia and England) are automatically qualified for the finals stage. Today's draw conducted the 28 entered teams, who have to qualify for the final event, into seven groups.

The countries (see below) are listed in the ranking order. The seeded team has been given the first option (until 20 May) to host the group. If a team declines, the offer is given to the second highest ranked team.

Group 1:

Netherlands
Slovenia
Lithuania
Faroe Islands

Group 2:

Scotland
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Latvia

Group 3:

France
Austria
Israel
Belarus

Group 4:

Sweden
Estonia
Italy
Luxembourg

Group 5:

Spain
Turkey
Croatia
Iceland

Group 6:

Ireland
Bulgaria
Slovakia
Norway

Group 7:

Poland
Finland
Wales
Hungary

A total number of 33 Member Associations have entered a team for the European Mixed Team Championships – meaning that, in accordance with the regulations for these championships (reg. 6.4), 5 teams are directly into the final, while the remaining 28 teams will play in 7 qualification groups to qualify for the final. The final will be played in Leuven, Belgium from 12-15 February 2015.

Photo by BadmintonPhoto.