The 2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-17 Euro 2019) was the 18th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (37th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-17 national teams of Europe. The Republic of Ireland, which was selected by UEFA on 9 December 2016, hosted the tournament.[1]
A total of 16 teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2002 eligible to participate. Starting from this season, up to five substitutions were permitted per team in each match.[2] Moreover, each match has a regular duration of 90 minutes, instead of 80 minutes in previous seasons.
Same as previous editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The top five teams of the tournament qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil as the UEFA representatives.
In the final, defending champions Netherlands defeated Italy 4–2 to win their fourth title.[3]
All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Republic of Ireland qualifying automatically, the other 54 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament.[4] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2018, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2019.[5]
Qualified teams
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.[6]
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).
The best seven runners-up among all eight elite round groups qualified for the final tournament.
Final draw
The final draw was held on 4 April 2019, 18:30 IST (UTC+1), at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.[7] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The hosts Republic of Ireland were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams were seeded according to their results in the qualification elite round. The seven best elite round group winners (counting all elite round results) were placed in Pot 1 and drawn to positions 1 and 2 in the groups, and the remaining eight teams (the eighth-best elite round group winner and the seven elite round group runners-up) were placed in Pot 2 and drawn to positions 3 and 4 in the groups.
Each national team have to submit a squad of 20 players (Regulations Article 38).[5]
Group stage
The final tournament schedule was announced on 11 April 2019.[8]
The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.
Tiebreakers
In the group stage, 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 17.01 and 17.02):[5]
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);
To determine the two best losing quarter-finalists which enter the FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off, the losing quarter-finalists are ranked by the following criteria (Regulations Article 16.06):[5]
Position in the group stage (i.e., group winners ahead of group runners-up);
Results in the group stage (i.e., points, goal difference, goals scored);
Results in the quarter-finals (i.e., points, goal difference, goals scored);
Disciplinary points in the group stage and quarter-finals combined;
Netherlands (4th title)
Italy
Adil Aouchiche
