Spain and Netherlands face the prospect of a tougher draw at Euro 2012 due to the top seeding of hosts Poland and Ukraine - while France could find themselves in the bottom pot of seeds.

The Olimpiysky Stadium in Kiev (GettyImages)

The draw for the finals, which takes place on Friday, December 2, will seed teams based on the coefficient of performance in qualifying and final tournaments of Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup, as well as qualifying for Euro 2012. There will be weighting of 40% each on Euro 2012 qualifying and World Cup results, and 20% for Euro 2008.

Poland and Ukraine are among the top seeds, as happens with the hosts of every international tournament to ensure their games take place in their own country and at a major stadium. Spain are automatically seeded as holders, while Netherlands are currently the top-ranked nation in the coefficient (though below Spain).

It means that being in the second pot is more favourable than being a top seed, as those countries have a greater chance of being drawn against the hosts who, on ranking, are weaker opponents. However, there is also the prospect of being drawn against the reigning champions or the Dutch, who have won every game in qualifying.

The coefficent table would rank Ukraine as the 13th best team in Europe and Poland as 27th.

The play-off draw will again be seeded, a method that courted plenty of controversy when Ireland were drawn against France in World Cup qualifying, and is to be based on the coefficients after this month's qualifiers, with the draw for November's two-legged ties taking place on Thursday, October 13.

There has been little movement in the rankings among the top sides recently. After September's qualifying fixtures the top 12 was almost entirely unchanged, apart from England moving above Italy into fourth and Croatia leapfrogging Russia into sixth. Every other nation was unchanged.

There is far more scope for movement for the lower ranked nations, who are unlikely to be involved in the finals.

With Spain and Netherlands as top seeds, they would be drawn against, assuming they qualify, one of Germany, England, Italy or Croatia. Portugal would be in pot three and France in pot four.

That could create a potential group of death involving Spain, Germany, Portugal and France.

Based on the current coefficients and tables - which of course will change by next week - the draw pots would be as follows. This also assumes the seeded nations win the qualifying play-offs.

Pot One: Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands
Pot Two: Germany, England, Italy, Croatia
Pot Three: Russia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden
Pot Four: France, Denmark, Serbia, Czech Republic

Sweden/Netherlands or Greece/Croatia are most likely to qualify automatically as the best runner-up. This would make the pots for the play-off draw as follows:

Seeds: Sweden/Netherlands or Greece/Croatia, Denmark, Serbia, Czech Republic
Unseeded: Turkey, Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro