2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 27 September – 1 November 2017; Elite round:; 7–28 March 2018
Teams	54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	126
Goals scored	343 (2.72 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Adam Idah (8 goals)
	← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-17 football competition that determined the 15 teams joining the automatically qualified hosts England in the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1]

Apart from England, all remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition (including Kosovo who entered for the first time).^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 2001 are eligible to participate. Each match has a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[3]

Qualifying round: Apart from Germany and Portugal, which receive byes to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams are drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group is 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 four third-placed teams with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 32 teams are drawn into eight groups of four teams. Each group is 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 qualify for the final tournament.

The schedule of each mini-tournament is as follows (Regulations Article 20.04):^[3]

Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Rest days (2 days)	—
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers

In the qualifying round and elite round, 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 14.01 and 14.02):^[3]

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 for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

To determine the four 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 are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Articles 15.01, 15.02 and 15.03):^[3]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 13 December 2016, 09:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[4]^[5]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[6]

2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2016 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. For political reasons, Russia and Ukraine, Spain and Gibraltar, Serbia and Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.^[2]

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff	Rank
England	12.167	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany	14.667	1
Portugal	11.167	2

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Netherlands	10.667	3
Spain	10.000	4
France	10.000	5
Scotland	9.000	6
Austria	8.833	7
Russia	8.667	8
Italy	8.500	9
Czech Republic	8.500	10
Serbia	8.333	11
Belgium	8.333	12
Poland	7.833	13
Bosnia and Herzegovina	7.000	14
Republic of Ireland	6.833	15

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Croatia	6.500	16
Greece	6.333	17
Ukraine	6.167	18
Switzerland	6.167	19
Sweden	5.500	20
Denmark	5.500	21
Slovenia	5.333	22
Turkey	5.167	23
Iceland	5.000	24
Romania	5.000	25
Wales	4.833	26
Georgia	4.833	27
Slovakia	4.833	28

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Israel	4.833	29
Bulgaria	3.667	30
Norway	3.500	31
Belarus	3.500	32
Latvia	3.000	33
Estonia	3.000	34
Cyprus	3.000	35
Hungary	2.667	36
Northern Ireland	2.667	37
Finland	2.500	38
Albania	2.500	39
Lithuania	2.000	40
Moldova	2.000	41

Pot D
Team	Coeff	Rank
Macedonia	1.667	42
Montenegro	1.500	43
Azerbaijan	1.500	44
Armenia	1.333	45
Luxembourg	1.333	46
Faroe Islands	1.333	47
Liechtenstein	1.000	48
San Marino	0.333	49
Gibraltar	0.333	50
Andorra	0.000	51
Malta	0.000	52
Kazakhstan	0.000	53
Kosovo	—	54

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Groups

The qualifying round must be played by 19 November 2017.^[3]^[6]

Times up to 28 October 2017 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	3	3	0	8	1	+7	9	Elite round
2	Switzerland	3	2	1	6	2	+4	6	Elite round
3	Northern Ireland	3	1	2	1	8	−7	3
4	Malta (H)	3	0	3	1	5	−4	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

26 October 2017