The 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification was a men's under-17 football competition organised by UEFA to determine the 15 national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Azerbaijan in the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.
A total of 53 national teams entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and April 2016. Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.
Format The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round: Apart from Germany, 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 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 the first and third-placed teams in their group qualified for the final tournament.
Tiebreakers The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question; If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied; Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches; Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches; If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (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). Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Drawing of lots.
To determine the five 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 were discarded. The following criteria were applied: Higher number of points; Superior goal difference; Higher number of goals scored; Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points); Drawing of lots.
Qualifying round Draw The draw for the qualifying round was held on 3 December 2014, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following: 2012 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round) 2013 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round) 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
Each group contained two teams from Pot A and two teams from Pot B. For political reasons, Spain and Gibraltar (due to the disputed status of Gibraltar), as well as Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine), could not be drawn in the same group.
+Bye to elite round Team 11.333 1 +Pot A Team 10.000 2 10.000 3 9.167 4 9.167 5 8.833 6 8.667 7 8.000 8 7.833 9 7.833 10 7.500 11 7.500 12 7.333 13 7.000 14 7.000 15 6.667 16 6.500 17 6.500 18 6.000 19 5.833 20 5.667 21 5.667 22 5.500 23 5.167 24 4.833 25 4.633 26 4.167 27+Pot B Team 4.167 28 4.000 29 4.000 30 4.000 31 3.833 32 3.667 33 3.500 34 2.833 35 2.667 36 2.667 37 2.500 38 2.333 39 2.000 40 2.000 41 2.000 42 1.667 43 1.667 44 1.667 45 1.333 46 1.333 47 1.333 48 0.333 49 0.333 50 0.333 51 0.000 52 0.000 53 Notes Azerbaijan (Coeff: 1.667) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
Groups Times up to 24 October 2015 were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times were CET (UTC+1).
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Group 9
Group 10
Group 11
Group 12
Group 13
Ranking of third-placed teams To determine the five best third-placed teams from the qualifying round advancing 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.
Elite round Draw The draw for the elite round was held on 3 December 2015, 11:45 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The teams were seeded according to their results in the qualifying round. Germany, which received a bye 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 third-placed teams could be drawn in the same group as winners or runners-up from the same qualifying round group. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine) could not be drawn in the same group.
Groups Times up to 26 March 2016 were CET (UTC+1), thereafter times were CEST (UTC+2).
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
Group 7
Group 8
Ranking of second-placed teams To determine the seven best second-placed teams from the elite round qualifying for the final tournament, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group were taken into account.
Qualified teams The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament:
Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in tournament1only U-17 era (since 2002) (debut) (2002, 2003, 2011) (2002, 2004, 2007, 2013) (2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015) (2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015) (2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2014) (2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015) (2002, 2006, 2008, 2011) (2006, 2007, 2012, 2015) (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015) (2003, 2004, 2013, 2015) (2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015) (debut) (2013) (2008, 2014, 2015) (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015) 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.
Top goalscorers The following players scored four goals or more in the qualifying competition:
7 goals
João Filipe
6 goals
Reiss Nelson
5 goals
Jens Odgaard Dylan Vente José Gomes Teddy Bergqvist
4 goals
Duje Javorčić Martin Graiciar
References
External links