The 2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying competition is the men's under-17 football competition that will determine the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Cyprus in the 2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2007 were eligible to participate.
Russia were excluded from the tournament due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Apart from Cyprus as the host, the remaining 52 teams entered the qualifying competition, where the format consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in September, October and November 2023 and the Elite round which will take place from 20 to 26 March 2024.
Format
The qualifying competition consisted of the following two rounds:[2]
Qualifying round: Apart from Netherlands, 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 is played in a 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 all teams in their group qualified for the final tournament.
The schedule of each group was as follows, with two rest days between each matchday (Regulations Article 20.04):
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):[2]
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 ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.
To determine the four best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Articles 15.01 and 15.03):[2]
Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points (total 3 matches);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.
To determine the seven best runners-up from the elite round, all results were considered. The same criteria as above were applied (Regulations Articles 15.02 and 15.03).[2]
Qualifying round
Draw
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 8 December 2022 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[3]
The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[4][5]
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, Belarus and Ukraine, Kosovo and Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: Tiebreakers (H) Hosts
Gibraltar initially withdrew from the group on 7 October 2023, citing safety concerns in light of the October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict.[6] All matches were subsequently postponed by UEFA later that day.[7] New dates and host nation (Wales) were announced later. Israel withdrew from qualification shortly before the re-arranged dates.
To determine the five best third-placed teams 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 are taken into account.
Source: UEFA Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient; 6) drawing of lots. Notes:
^ abRanked on disciplinary points: Malta: –3, Gibraltar: –4
Elite round
Draw
The draw for the elite round was held on 7 December 2023 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round.[5] The Netherlands which received a bye to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contains 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. [8]
To determine the seven best second-placed teams from the elite round who will 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.
Updated to match(es) played on 12 March 2024. Source: UEFA Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) goals scored; 4) disciplinary points; 5) coefficient; 6) drawing of lots.
Goalscorers
In the qualifying round there were 245 goals scored in 75 matches, for an average of 3.27 goals per match.
In the elite round there have been 9 goals scored in 4 matches, for an average of 2.25 goals per match (as of 9 March 2024).
In total, there have been 254 goals scored in 79 matches, for an average of 3.22 goals per match (as of 9 March 2024).
Adrian Arnucio
