2023 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2023 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 5 October – 22 November 2022; Elite round:; 7 – 28 March 2023
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	123
Goals scored	448 (3.64 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Matviy Ponomarenko; (8 goals)
	← 2022 2024 →

The 2023 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 Hungary in the 2023 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2006 were eligible to participate.

Apart from Hungary as the host, the remaining 53 teams entered the qualifying competition, where the format consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in October and November 2022, and Elite round, which took place in March 2023.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of the following two rounds:^[2]

Qualifying round: Apart from Netherlands and Spain, which received byes to the elite round as the teams 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 four 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 17 December 2021 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[3]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[4]^[5]

2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
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)

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: Serbia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Hungary	14.389	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Netherlands	28.556	1
Spain	27.444	2

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff.	Rank
England	23.056	3
Italy	22.667	4
Portugal	20.722	5
Germany	19.833	6
France	18.944	7
Belgium	18.556	8
Republic of Ireland	16.833	9
Sweden	15.278	10
Austria	13.556	11
Serbia	13.278	12
Turkey	12.667	13
Bosnia and Herzegovina	12.333	14
Scotland	12.000	15

Pot B
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Ukraine	11.889	16
Czech Republic	11.722	17
Israel	11.167	18
Switzerland	11.111	19
Denmark	11.000	20
Norway	10.722	21
Russia	10.667	22
Greece	10.222	23
Slovenia	10.111	24
Poland	10.000	25
Croatia	9.833	26
Slovakia	9.333	27
Iceland	8.167	28

Pot C
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Finland	7.833	29
Cyprus	6.167	30
Belarus	5.500	31
Romania	5.333	32
Azerbaijan	5.333	33
North Macedonia	4.833	34
Montenegro	4.667	35
Wales	4.500	36
Georgia	4.333	37
Northern Ireland	4.167	38
Bulgaria	4.000	39
Latvia	3.000	40
Faroe Islands	2.889	41

Pot D
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Lithuania	2.667	42
Albania	2.333	43
Estonia	2.333	44
Armenia	2.000	45
Kazakhstan	2.000	46
Kosovo	2.000	47
Andorra	1.333	48
Liechtenstein	1.000	49
Moldova	0.667	50
Luxembourg	0.667	51
San Marino	0.333	52
Malta	0.000	53
Gibraltar	0.000	54

Notes

Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.

Groups

The qualifying round was played in October and November 2022.

Times up to 30 October 2022 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	Portugal (H)	3	3	0	0	11	1	+10	9	Elite round
2	Slovenia	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4	Elite round
3	Kazakhstan	3	1	1	1	4	6	−2	4
4	Faroe Islands	3	0	0	3	0	8	−8	0

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

16 November 2022