The 2018 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 England in the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.[1]
Apart from England, all remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition (including Kosovo who entered for the first time).[2] Players born on or after 1 January 2001 are eligible to participate. Each match has a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.
Format
The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:[3]
Qualifying round: Apart from Germany and Portugal, 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 mini-tournament is as follows (Regulations Article 20.04):[3]
Matchday
Matches
Matchday 1
1 v 4, 3 v 2
Rest days (2 days)
—
Matchday 2
1 v 3, 2 v 4
Rest days (2 days)
—
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):[3]
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):[3]
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 13 December 2016, 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]
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]
^ abcHead-to-head results: Bosnia and Herzegovina 0–0 Macedonia, Slovakia 0–0 Macedonia, Slovakia 1–1 Bosnia and Herzegovina. Head-to-head standings:
Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2 pts, 0 GD, 1 GF
Slovakia: 2 pts, 0 GD, 1 GF
Macedonia: 2 pts, 0 GD, 0 GF
Macedonia are ranked third on head-to-head goals scored. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia are tied on their own head-to-head result, and are ranked on total goal difference.
To determine the four best third-placed teams from the qualifying round which advance to the elite round, only the results of the third-placed teams against the first and second-placed teams in their group are taken into account.
The draw for the elite round was held on 6 December 2017, 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 and Portugal, which received byes 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 the best third-placed teams could be drawn in the same group as winners or runners-up from the same qualifying round group.[11]
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient; 6) drawing of lots. (Y)Third-placed teams from qualifying round (may be drawn with teams from same qualifying round group) Notes:
The Serbia v Ukraine match was completed with a score of 1–2 before a default victory was awarded to Serbia due to participation of disqualified Ukrainian players Mykola Yarosh and Roman Bodnia.[12][13]
To determine the seven best second-placed teams from the elite round which qualify for the final tournament, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group are taken into account.
^The match between Montenegro and Latvia, which kicked off on 30 October 2017, 15:00 CET in David Petriashvili Stadium, was suspended after 1:35 minutes due to strong winds and broken floodlights. The match resumed on 17:50 CET in Mikheil Meskhi Stadium.[7]
Adam Idah (8 goals)
