2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

The 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification was a men's under-17 football competition organised by UEFA to determine the 15 national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Azerbaijan in the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1]

A total of 53 national teams entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and April 2016.^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:^[3]

• Qualifying round: Apart from Germany, which received a bye to the elite round as the team with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams were drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group was 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 five third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round.
• Elite round: The 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four teams. Each group was 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 qualified for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[3]

1. Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
3. Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied;
5. Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
7. If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage).
8. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
9. Drawing of lots.

To determine the five 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 were discarded. The following criteria were applied:^[3]

1. Higher number of points;
2. Superior goal difference;
3. Higher number of goals scored;
4. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
5. Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 3 December 2014, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[4][5]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[6][7]

• 2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
• 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
• 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained two teams from Pot A and two teams from Pot B. For political reasons, Spain and Gibraltar (due to the disputed status of Gibraltar), as well as Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine), could not be drawn in the same group.^[2]

Bye to elite round

Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany	11.333	1

Pot A Team Coeff Rank  England 10.000 2  Netherlands 10.000 3  Portugal 9.167 4  Poland 9.167 5  France 8.833 6  Serbia 8.667 7  Russia 8.000 8   Switzerland 7.833 9  Italy 7.833 10  Spain 7.500 11  Czech Republic 7.500 12  Scotland 7.333 13  Georgia 7.000 14  Sweden 7.000 15  Hungary 6.667 16  Ukraine 6.500 17  Belgium 6.500 18  Iceland 6.000 19  Austria 5.833 20  Turkey 5.667 21  Croatia 5.667 22  Denmark 5.500 23  Republic of Ireland 5.167 24  Norway 4.833 25  Belarus 4.633 26  Bosnia and Herzegovina 4.167 27

Pot B Team Coeff Rank  Greece 4.167 28  Bulgaria 4.000 29  Israel 4.000 30  Slovakia 4.000 31  Albania 3.833 32  Slovenia 3.667 33  Northern Ireland 3.500 34  Romania 2.833 35  Latvia 2.667 36  Macedonia 2.667 37  Estonia 2.500 38  Finland 2.333 39  Wales 2.000 40  Lithuania 2.000 41  Armenia 2.000 42  Luxembourg 1.667 43  Cyprus 1.667 44  Faroe Islands 1.667 45  Moldova 1.333 46  Montenegro 1.333 47  Kazakhstan 1.333 48  Malta 0.333 49  Andorra 0.333 50  San Marino 0.333 51  Liechtenstein 0.000 52  Gibraltar 0.000 53

Notes

• Azerbaijan (Coeff: 1.667) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.

Groups

Times up to 24 October 2015 were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times were CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	3	2	0	1	10	3	+7	6[a]	Elite round
2	Switzerland	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6[a]
3	Wales (H)	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Albania	3	0	1	2	1	8	−7	1

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Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Russia	3	3	0	0	10	0	+10	9	Elite round
2	Montenegro	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4
3	Cyprus	3	1	0	2	3	9	−6	3
4	Belarus (H)	3	0	1	2	3	6	−3	1

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Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Republic of Ireland	3	2	1	0	8	1	+7	7	Elite round
2	Sweden	3	1	2	0	7	3	+4	5
3	Finland (H)	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
4	Malta	3	0	0	3	3	15	−12	0

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Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Slovakia	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	5	Elite round
2	Georgia	3	1	1	1	8	6	+2	4[a]
3	Romania	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4[a]
4	Hungary (H)	3	0	2	1	4	5	−1	2

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Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7	Elite round
2	Serbia	3	1	2	0	7	2	+5	5
3	Lithuania	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
4	Luxembourg (H)	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0

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Group 6

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9	Elite round
2	Poland	3	2	0	1	6	2	+4	6
3	Latvia (H)	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Andorra	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

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Group 7

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Czech Republic	3	2	1	0	15	3	+12	7	Elite round
2	Croatia	3	2	1	0	8	3	+5	7
3	Liechtenstein (H)	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Gibraltar	3	0	0	3	2	16	−14	0

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Group 8

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7	Elite round
2	Greece	3	1	2	0	7	1	+6	5
3	Iceland (H)	3	1	1	1	6	3	+3	4
4	Kazakhstan	3	0	0	3	1	15	−14	0

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Group 9

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	2	1	0	14	1	+13	7	Elite round
2	Portugal (H)	3	2	1	0	13	1	+12	7
3	Armenia	3	0	1	2	1	13	−12	1
4	San Marino	3	0	1	2	1	14	−13	1

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Group 10

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7	Elite round
2	Turkey	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5
3	Slovenia (H)	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Faroe Islands	3	0	0	3	1	8	−7	0

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Group 11

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	3	3	0	0	5	0	+5	9	Elite round
2	Israel (H)	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	6
3	Northern Ireland	3	0	1	2	2	4	−2	1
4	Norway	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

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Group 12

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5	Elite round
2	Bulgaria (H)	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4[a]
3	Scotland	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4[a]
4	Macedonia	3	0	2	1	0	3	−3	2

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Group 13

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ukraine	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7	Elite round
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	2	0	1	7	4	+3	6
3	Estonia	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3
4	Moldova (H)	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

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Ranking of third-placed teams

To determine the five best third-placed teams from the qualifying round advancing to the elite round, only the results of the third-placed teams against the first and second-placed teams in their group were taken into account.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	1	Wales	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3	Elite round
2	10	Slovenia	2	0	1	1	2	3	−1	1
3	3	Finland	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1
4	8	Iceland	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2	1[a]
5	12	Scotland	2	0	1	1	1	3	−2	1[a]
6	5	Lithuania	2	0	1	1	0	2	−2	1
7	4	Romania	2	0	1	1	1	4	−3	1
8	11	Northern Ireland	2	0	0	2	1	3	−2	0
9	13	Estonia	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3	0
10	7	Liechtenstein	2	0	0	2	0	6	−6	0[a]
11	6	Latvia	2	0	0	2	0	6	−6	0[a]
12	2	Cyprus	2	0	0	2	0	7	−7	0
13	9	Armenia	2	0	0	2	0	12	−12	0

Elite round

Draw

The draw for the elite round was held on 3 December 2015, 11:45 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[8][9]

The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round.^[10] Germany, which received a bye to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Winners and runners-up from the same qualifying round group could not be drawn in the same group, but third-placed teams could be drawn in the same group as winners or runners-up from the same qualifying round group. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine) could not be drawn in the same group.^[11]

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Seeding
1	—	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Pot A
2	2	Russia	3	3	0	0	10	0	+10	9
3	6	Spain	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9
4	11	France	3	3	0	0	5	0	+5	9
5	9	England	3	2	1	0	14	1	+13	7
6	7	Czech Republic	3	2	1	0	15	3	+12	7
7	9	Portugal	3	2	1	0	13	1	+12	7
8	3	Republic of Ireland	3	2	1	0	8	1	+7	7
9	7	Croatia	3	2	1	0	8	3	+5	7	Pot B
10	13	Ukraine	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7[a]
11	8	Denmark	3	2	1	0	6	1	+5	7[a]
12	10	Belgium	3	2	1	0	6	2	+4	7
13	5	Austria	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
14	1	Netherlands	3	2	0	1	10	3	+7	6
15	6	Poland	3	2	0	1	6	2	+4	6
16	13	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	2	0	1	7	4	+3	6
17	11	Israel	3	2	0	1	5	5	0	6	Pot C
18	1	Switzerland	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6
19	8	Greece	3	1	2	0	7	1	+6	5
20	5	Serbia	3	1	2	0	7	2	+5	5
21	3	Sweden	3	1	2	0	7	3	+4	5
22	10	Turkey	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5[b]
23	12	Italy	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5[b]
24	4	Slovakia	3	1	2	0	6	5	+1	5
25	8	Iceland	3	1	1	1	6	3	+3	4	Pot D
26	4	Georgia	3	1	1	1	8	6	+2	4
27	3	Finland	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
28	12	Scotland	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
29	10	Slovenia	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4[b]
30	1	Wales	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4[b]
31	2	Montenegro	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4[b]
32	12	Bulgaria	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	4[b]

Groups

Times up to 26 March 2016 were CET (UTC+1), thereafter times were CEST (UTC+2).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	3	2	0	1	8	4	+4	6	Final tournament
2	Scotland	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4[a]
3	Czech Republic (H)	3	1	1	1	5	6	−1	4[a]
4	Switzerland	3	0	2	1	4	5	−1	2

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Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ukraine	3	2	1	0	7	1	+6	7	Final tournament
2	England (H)	3	2	1	0	5	2	+3	7
3	Turkey	3	1	0	2	4	7	−3	3
4	Finland	3	0	0	3	1	7	−6	0

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Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	3	2	0	1	5	1	+4	6[a]	Final tournament
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6[a]
3	Russia	3	2	0	1	3	5	−2	6[a]
4	Georgia (H)	3	0	0	3	1	4	−3	0

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Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Germany (H)	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	7	Final tournament
2	Netherlands	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	4
3	Slovakia	3	1	0	2	4	7	−3	3
4	Bulgaria	3	0	2	1	1	4	−3	2

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Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Portugal	3	3	0	0	7	2	+5	9	Final tournament
2	Sweden	3	2	0	1	3	3	0	6
3	Wales	3	1	0	2	2	2	0	3
4	Croatia (H)	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0

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Group 6

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France (H)	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	6	Final tournament
2	Austria	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	5
3	Iceland	3	1	1	1	1	1	0	4
4	Greece	3	0	1	2	0	2	−2	1

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Group 7

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Serbia	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9	Final tournament
2	Poland (H)	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4[a]
3	Republic of Ireland	3	1	1	1	3	2	+1	4[a]
4	Montenegro	3	0	0	3	0	7	−7	0

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Group 8

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium (H)	3	1	2	0	1	0	+1	5[a]	Final tournament
2	Spain	3	1	2	0	1	0	+1	5[a]
3	Slovenia	3	0	3	0	1	1	0	3
4	Israel	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

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Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the seven best second-placed teams from the elite round qualifying for the final tournament, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	2	England	2	1	1	0	4	2	+2	4	Final tournament
2	6	Austria	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4
3	4	Netherlands	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1	3
4	3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2	1	0	1	2	2	0	3
5	5	Sweden	2	1	0	1	1	2	−1	3
6	1	Scotland	2	1	0	1	2	4	−2	3
7	8	Spain	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	2
8	7	Poland	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	1

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament:

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1 only U-17 era (since 2002)
Azerbaijan	Hosts	20 March 2012[1]	0 (debut)
Denmark	Elite round Group 1 winners	30 March 2016	3 (2002, 2003, 2011)
Ukraine	Elite round Group 2 winners	26 March 2016	4 (2002, 2004, 2007, 2013)
Italy	Elite round Group 3 winners	20 March 2016	5 (2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015)
Germany	Elite round Group 4 winners	29 March 2016	8 (2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015)
Portugal	Elite round Group 5 winners	18 March 2016	5 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2014)
France	Elite round Group 6 winners	31 March 2016	9 (2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015)
Serbia	Elite round Group 7 winners	30 March 2016	4 (2002, 2006, 2008, 2011)
Belgium	Elite round Group 8 winners	16 March 2016	4 (2006, 2007, 2012, 2015)
England	Elite round best seven runners-up	26 March 2016	10 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015)
Austria	Elite round best seven runners-up	3 April 2016	4 (2003, 2004, 2013, 2015)
Netherlands	Elite round best seven runners-up	29 March 2016	9 (2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Elite round best seven runners-up	20 March 2016	0 (debut)
Sweden	Elite round best seven runners-up	21 March 2016	1 (2013)
Scotland	Elite round best seven runners-up	2 April 2016	3 (2008, 2014, 2015)
Spain	Elite round best seven runners-up	2 April 2016	9 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Top goalscorers

The following players scored four goals or more in the qualifying competition:^[12]

7 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

References

External links

• Official website