2020 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2020 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 25 September – 19 November 2019; Elite round:; Cancelled[1]
Teams	54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	78
Goals scored	289 (3.71 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Matthis Abline; Szymon Włodarczyk; (5 goals each)

The 2020 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-17 football competition that was originally to determine the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Estonia in the 2020 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament,[2] before being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]

Apart from Estonia, all remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition.[3] Players born on or after 1 January 2003 are eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:[4]

Qualifying round: Apart from Spain and England, which receive byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams are drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 13 group winners, the 13 runners-up, and the four third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The eight group winners and the seven runners-up with the best record against all teams in their group qualify for the final tournament.

The schedule of each group is as follows, with two rest days between each matchday (Regulations Article 20.04):[4]

Group schedule
Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying round and elite round, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):[4]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

To determine the four best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place are discarded. To determine the seven best runners-up from the elite round, all results are considered. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Articles 15.01, 15.02 and 15.03):[4]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points (total 3 matches);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 6 December 2018, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[3]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[5]

2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, the following pairs of teams could not be drawn in the same group: Russia and Ukraine, Serbia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Estonia	2.333	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Spain	25.889	1
England	25.000	2

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Germany	24.167	3
Netherlands	23.778	4
France	20.611	5
Italy	19.667	6
Belgium	19.111	7
Portugal	18.222	8
Republic of Ireland	17.167	9
Austria	14.333	10
Sweden	14.000	11
Serbia	13.778	12
Scotland	13.222	13
Russia	13.111	14
Bosnia and Herzegovina	13.000	15

Pot B
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Croatia	12.556	16
Israel	11.333	17
Hungary	11.111	18
Slovenia	10.889	19
Poland	10.833	20
Turkey	10.833	21
Ukraine	10.722	22
Norway	10.722	23
Czech Republic	10.611	24
Greece	10.556	25
Switzerland	10.111	26
Denmark	9.333	27
Slovakia	9.167	28

Pot C
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Finland	7.833	29
Azerbaijan	7.000	30
Georgia	6.833	31
Cyprus	6.833	32
Wales	6.500	33
Iceland	6.333	34
Belarus	6.167	35
Bulgaria	5.333	36
Romania	5.000	37
Northern Ireland	4.167	38
North Macedonia	3.833	39
Montenegro	3.667	40
Faroe Islands	3.222	41

Pot D
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Lithuania	2.667	42
Latvia	2.667	43
Albania	2.333	44
Armenia	2.000	45
Luxembourg	1.667	46
Moldova	1.667	47
Kazakhstan	1.000	48
Liechtenstein	1.000	49
Andorra	0.333	50
San Marino	0.333	51
Gibraltar	0.333	52
Malta	0.000	53
Kosovo	0.000	54

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Groups

The qualifying round must be played by 19 November 2019.

Times up to 26 October 2019 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	3	2	1	0	17	3	+14	7	Elite round
2	Poland (H)	3	2	1	0	16	4	+12	7	Elite round
3	North Macedonia	3	1	0	2	7	6	+1	3
4	Liechtenstein	3	0	0	3	0	27	−27	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Host.

9 October 2019