2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 22 September – 31 October 2015; Elite round:; 11 March – 3 April 2016
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	126
Goals scored	343 (2.72 per match)
Top scorer(s)	João Filipe (7 goals)

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.^[1]

A total of 53 national teams entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and April 2016.^[2] 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:^[3]

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:^[3]

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:^[3]

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.^[4]^[5]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[6]^[7]

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.^[2]

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany	11.333	1

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
England	10.000	2
Netherlands	10.000	3
Portugal	9.167	4
Poland	9.167	5
France	8.833	6
Serbia	8.667	7
Russia	8.000	8
Switzerland	7.833	9
Italy	7.833	10
Spain	7.500	11
Czech Republic	7.500	12
Scotland	7.333	13
Georgia	7.000	14
Sweden	7.000	15
Hungary	6.667	16
Ukraine	6.500	17
Belgium	6.500	18
Iceland	6.000	19
Austria	5.833	20
Turkey	5.667	21
Croatia	5.667	22
Denmark	5.500	23
Republic of Ireland	5.167	24
Norway	4.833	25
Belarus	4.633	26
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4.167	27

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Greece	4.167	28
Bulgaria	4.000	29
Israel	4.000	30
Slovakia	4.000	31
Albania	3.833	32
Slovenia	3.667	33
Northern Ireland	3.500	34
Romania	2.833	35
Latvia	2.667	36
Macedonia	2.667	37
Estonia	2.500	38
Finland	2.333	39
Wales	2.000	40
Lithuania	2.000	41
Armenia	2.000	42
Luxembourg	1.667	43
Cyprus	1.667	44
Faroe Islands	1.667	45
Moldova	1.333	46
Montenegro	1.333	47
Kazakhstan	1.333	48
Malta	0.333	49
Andorra	0.333	50
San Marino	0.333	51
Liechtenstein	0.000	52
Gibraltar	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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	3	2	0	1	10	3	+7	6^{[lower-alpha 1]}	Elite round
2	Switzerland	3	2	0	1	4	4	0	6^{[lower-alpha 1]}
3	Wales (H)	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Albania	3	0	1	2	1	8	−7	1

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

1 2 Ranked by head-to-head record (Netherlands: 3 pts; Switzerland: 0 pts).

22 October 2015