2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 27 September – 2 November 2018; Elite round:; 20 March – 1 April 2019
Teams	54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	126
Goals scored	441 (3.5 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Kirill Shchetinin (8 goals)
	← 2018 2020 ⊟

The 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-17 football competition that determined the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Republic of Ireland in the 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1]

Apart from Republic of Ireland, all remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition.^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 2002 were eligible to participate. Starting from this season, up to five substitutions are permitted per team in each match.^[3] Moreover, each match has a regular duration of 90 minutes, instead of 80 minutes in previous seasons.

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[4]

Qualifying round: Apart from England and Germany, 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 the first and third-placed 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 for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

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

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 6 December 2017, 09:00 CET (UTC 1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[5]^[6]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following (a four-year window was used instead of the previous three-year window):^[7]

2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
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)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine, Spain and Gibraltar, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.^[2]

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff	Rank
Republic of Ireland	13.667	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
England	27.667	1
Germany	25.333	2

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Spain	24.056	3
Netherlands	23.111	4
Portugal	21.389	5
France	20.611	6
Scotland	17.000	7
Italy	15.000	8
Russia	14.944	9
Belgium	14.833	10
Austria	14.167	11
Turkey	13.556	12
Serbia	13.333	13
Bosnia and Herzegovina	12.111	14
Czech Republic	11.778	15

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Poland	11.667	16
Croatia	11.056	17
Sweden	10.889	18
Ukraine	10.722	19
Greece	10.722	20
Switzerland	10.667	21
Israel	9.000	22
Slovenia	8.444	23
Slovakia	8.333	24
Hungary	8.278	25
Norway	7.500	26
Wales	7.333	27
Denmark	7.222	28

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Iceland	6.500	29
Georgia	6.333	30
Azerbaijan	6.333	31
Belarus	6.167	32
Romania	6.000	33
Cyprus	5.667	34
Finland	5.500	35
Bulgaria	5.333	36
Latvia	4.500	37
Faroe Islands	4.222	38
Northern Ireland	4.167	39
Montenegro	3.667	40
Armenia	3.000	41

Pot D
Team	Coeff	Rank
Albania	3.000	42
Macedonia	3.000	43
Estonia	3.000	44
Malta	3.000	45
Lithuania	2.333	46
Moldova	2.000	47
Luxembourg	1.667	48
Kazakhstan	1.000	49
Liechtenstein	1.000	50
San Marino	0.333	51
Gibraltar	0.333	52
Andorra	0.000	53
Kosovo	—	54

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Groups

The qualifying round must be played by 20 November 2018.^[6]

Times up to 27 October 2018 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	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	3	3	0	22	5	17	9	Elite round
2	Sweden (H)	3	2	1	11	6	5	6	Elite round
3	Montenegro	3	1	2	2	8	−6	3
4	Liechtenstein	3	0	3	1	17	−16	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

27 September 2018