The 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Slovakia in the 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament.[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2003 were eligible to participate.
Originally, the qualifying competition would use a new format with teams split into three different leagues with promotion and relegation, with the draw of the first round under the new format already held in December 2019. However, on 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that the introduction of the new format had been postponed to the next edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and qualification for this edition would use the previous format involving two rounds only.[2]
Apart from Slovakia, 53 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition, where the original format consisted of a qualifying round that took place in autumn 2021, and an elite round that took place in spring and summer 2022.[3]
Format
The qualifying competition consisted of the following two rounds:
Qualifying round: Apart from Portugal, 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 thirteen group winners, thirteen runners-up, and the third-placed team with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams were drawn into seven 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 seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.
The schedule of each group was 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 were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):[4]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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 had 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 had the same number of points, or if their rankings were 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 best third-placed team from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Articles 15.01 and 15.02):[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 3 December 2019, 10:00 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][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. Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, the following pairs of teams could not be drawn in the same group: Spain and Gibraltar, Ukraine and Russia, Serbia and Kosovo, Russia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
The qualifying round was originally scheduled to be played by 17 November 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, UEFA announced on 13 August 2020 that after consultation with the 55 member associations, the qualifying round would be delayed to March 2021.[7]
Times up to 27 March 2022 are CET (UTC+1), thereafter times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
To determine the best third-placed team from the qualifying round which advanced 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.
The draw for the elite round was held on 8 December 2021, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[8]
The teams were seeded according to their positions and then results (i.e. group winners were seeded higher than second-placed teams, the best third-placed team was seeded at the bottom) in the qualifying round.[8][6]Portugal, which received a bye to the elite round, was 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.
^"Croatia would be host of Elite round". sport.hrt.hr (in Croatian). HRT. December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021. Utakmice će se igrati 23., 26. i 29. ožujka iduće godine, a samo prvoplasirana momčad u skupini izborit će nastup na Euru.
Orri Steinn Óskarsson
Wilfried Gnonto
