2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2024 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 27 September – 21 November 2023; Elite round:; 6 – 26 March 2024
Teams	54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	75
Goals scored	245 (3.27 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Adrian Arnucio; (5 goals)

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]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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]

2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2019 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2022 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

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.

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Cyprus	6.500	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Netherlands	30.111	1

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Spain	25.778	2
Italy	24.778	3
France	23.167	4
England	20.233	5
Germany	19.500	6
Portugal	18.500	7
Belgium	17.444	8
Republic of Ireland	16.333	9
Hungary	16.056	10
Serbia	15.611	11
Sweden	14.167	12
Turkey	13.778	13
Denmark	12.333	14

Pot B
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Scotland	12.222	15
Israel	12.000	16
Norway	11.722	17
Switzerland	11.444	18
Czech Republic	11.222	19
Slovenia	10.111	20
Greece	10.889	21
Bosnia and Herzegovina	10.833	22
Ukraine	10.722	23
Poland	10.667	24
Austria	9.556	25
Slovakia	9.167	26
Croatia	8.667	27

Pot C
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Finland	8.500	28
Iceland	6.500	29
Belarus	6.500	30
Bulgaria	5.556	31
North Macedonia	5.500	32
Romania	5.000	33
Georgia	4.833	34
Northern Ireland	4.167	35
Kosovo	4.000	36
Wales	4.000	37
Montenegro	4.000	38
Luxembourg	3.917	39
Latvia	3.833	40

Pot D
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Estonia	3.333	41
Faroe Islands	2.889	42
Albania	2.333	43
Kazakhstan	2.333	44
Azerbaijan	2.000	45
Armenia	1.667	46
Andorra	1.333	47
Lithuania	1.333	48
Moldova	0.667	49
Malta	0.000	50
Gibraltar	0.000	51
Liechtenstein	0.000	52
San Marino	0.000	53

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Groups

The qualifying round will be played in September, October, and November 2023.

Times up to 29 October 2023 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria	3	2	1	0	5	3	+2	7	Elite round
2	Georgia (H)	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4^{[lower-alpha 1]}
3	Denmark	3	1	1	1	7	5	+2	4^{[lower-alpha 1]}
4	Lithuania	3	0	1	2	2	6	−4	1

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Notes:

1 2 Ranked on head-to-head points: Georgia: 3, Denmark: 0

11 October 2023

13:00

Denmark	4–1	Lithuania
Moalem 17' Obi 17' Hyseni 31' Abildgaard 90+4' (pen.)	Report	Garbaliaukas 13' (pen.)

Tskaltubo Technical Center, Tsqaltubo

Attendance: 50

Referee: Erkan Özdamar (Turkey)

11 October 2023