2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification

The 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying competition is a women's under-17 football competition scheduled to be played in 2015 and 2016 to determine the seven teams to join Belarus, who qualified automatically as hosts, in the 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1] A total of 46 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition (including Andorra who entered a UEFA women's competition for the first time).^[2]

The final tournament also acts as the UEFA qualifier for the 2016 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan, with three teams qualifying (the two finalists and the winner of a play-off match between the losing semi-finalists).^[3]

Format

The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:^[4]

• Qualifying round: Apart from Germany and France, which receive byes to the elite round as the two teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 44 teams are drawn into 11 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 11 group winners and the 11 runners-up advance to the elite round.
• Elite round: The 24 teams are drawn into six 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 six group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group qualify for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[4]

1. Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
3. Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
5. Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
7. If only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out (this criteria is not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if the rankings of the two teams are not relevant for which team qualifies for the next stage).
8. 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);
9. Drawing of lots.

To determine the best runner-up from the elite round, the results against the teams in fourth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied:^[4]

1. Higher number of points;
2. Superior goal difference;
3. Higher number of goals scored;
4. 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);
5. Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on 19 November 2014 at 09:40 CET (UTC+1).^[5][6]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[7][8]

• 2012 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
• 2013 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
• 2014 UEFA Women's 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, and two teams from Pot C.^[2] For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan (due to the disputed status of Nagorno-Karabakh), 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	Coeff	Rank
Germany	13.666	1
France	12.500	2

Pot A Team Coeff Rank  Spain 12.333 3  Sweden 8.833 4  Norway 8.667 5  Denmark 8.000 6   Switzerland 7.833 7  Austria 7.667 8  Belgium 7.333 9  Poland 7.333 10  Italy 7.167 11  Republic of Ireland 6.833 12  Iceland 6.833 13

Pot B Team Coeff Rank  Czech Republic 6.667 14  Russia 6.667 15  Netherlands 6.333 16  England 6.167 17  Finland 5.667 18  Scotland 5.667 19  Hungary 5.500 20  Serbia 4.833 21  Turkey 4.000 22  Northern Ireland 3.667 23  Greece 3.667 24

Pot C Team Coeff Rank  Romania 3.500 25  Bosnia and Herzegovina 3.333 26  Slovenia 3.000 27  Wales 3.000 28  Portugal 3.000 29  Bulgaria 2.333 30  Ukraine 2.333 31  Azerbaijan 2.000 32  Montenegro 2.000 33  Slovakia 1.667 34  Croatia 1.333 35  Moldova 1.333 36  Latvia 1.333 37  Israel 1.000 38  Faroe Islands 1.000 39  Estonia 0.000 40  Lithuania 0.000 41  Macedonia 0.000 42  Kazakhstan 0.000 43  Georgia 0.000 44  Andorra — 45  Armenia — 46

Notes

• Belarus (Coeff: 3.500) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
• Albania, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, and San Marino did not enter.

Groups

Times up to 24 October 2015 are CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times are CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Republic of Ireland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Turkey (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Ukraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Andorra	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 15–20 October 2015

Group 2

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Austria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Scotland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Kazakhstan (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Latvia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 11–16 October 2015

Group 3

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Spain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Greece	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Armenia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Portugal (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 23–28 October 2015

Group 4

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	England	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Estonia (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Croatia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 1–6 October 2015

Group 5

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Italy	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Northern Ireland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Macedonia (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 28 September–3 October 2015

Group 6

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Czech Republic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Georgia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Azerbaijan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 29 September–4 October 2015

Group 7

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Denmark	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Hungary (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Israel	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Wales	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 10–15 October 2015

Group 8

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Russia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Slovakia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Romania (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 12–17 October 2015

Group 9

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Serbia (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Lithuania	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Slovenia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 16–21 October 2015

Group 10

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Norway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Netherlands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Moldova	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Bulgaria (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 16–21 October 2015

Group 11

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iceland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Elite round
2	Finland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Montenegro (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Faroe Islands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Dates: 22–27 October 2015

Elite round

Draw

The draw for the elite round will be held on 10 December 2015.

The teams will be seeded according to their results in the qualifying round. Germany and France, which received byes to the elite round, will be automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group will contain one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D.

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Seeding
1	—	Germany	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Pot A
2	—	France	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Pot B
8		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
11		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
12		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
13		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Pot C
14		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
15		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
16		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
17		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
18		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
19		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Pot D
20		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
21		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
23		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
24		TBD	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Groups

Dates: Spring 2016

Times up to 28 March 2015 are CET (UTC+1), thereafter times are CEST (UTC+2).

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the best second-placed team from the elite round which qualify for the final tournament, only the results of the second-placed teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group are taken into account.

Qualified teams

The following eight teams qualify for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
Belarus	Hosts	02012-03-20-000020 March 2012	0 (debut)
TBD	Elite round Group 1 winners
TBD	Elite round Group 2 winners
TBD	Elite round Group 3 winners
TBD	Elite round Group 4 winners
TBD	Elite round Group 5 winners
TBD	Elite round Group 6 winners
TBD	Elite round best runners-up

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italics indicate host.

References

External links

• Official website