2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship will be the 21st edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (24th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. The final tournament will be hosted in Poland in mid-2017, after their bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee on 26 January 2015 in Nyon, Switzerland.^[1] The tournament will take place from 16 to 30 June 2017.^[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1994 will be eligible for the tournament.

In March 2012, UEFA announced that the competition would take place in even numbered years from 2016 onwards.^[3] In September 2013, UEFA announced its intention to continue holding the final tournament in odd numbered years following a request from its member national football associations.^[4] On 24 January 2014, UEFA confirmed that the final tournament will be held in 2017 and that it will be expanded from 8 teams to 12.^[5]

Hosts

The hosts were announced at a meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in Nyon on 26 January 2015. In late April 2014 the Polish football association PZPN very strongly indicated the country has high chances to host the tournament. Bidding to welcome Europe's best youth teams was one of the reasons for Poland's withdrawal from the Euro 2020 race.^[6]

Qualification

A total of 53 UEFA nations entered the competition (Gibraltar did not enter), and with the hosts Poland qualifying automatically, the other 52 teams will compete in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 11 spots in the final tournament.^[7] The qualifying competition, which will take place from March 2015 to November 2016, consists of two rounds:^[8]

• Qualifying group stage: The 52 teams are drawn into nine groups – seven groups of six teams and two groups of five teams. Each group is played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners qualify directly for the final tournament, while the four best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) advance to the play-offs.
• Play-offs: The four teams are drawn into two ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last two qualified teams.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).

Team	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Poland	Hosts	01 !26 January 2015	06 !6th	1994	05 !Quarter-finals (1982, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1994)

Final draw

The final draw will be held in late 2016 in Poland.^[9] The 12 teams will be drawn into three groups of four teams. The hosts Poland will be assigned to position A1 in the draw.

Venues

On 14 July 2015, Polish Football Association proposed seven venues:^[10]

Opening match, semifinal, and Final	Group A	Group A	Group B
Warsaw	Gdynia	Bydgoszcz	Lublin
Polish Army Stadium	Stadion GOSiR	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak Stadium	Arena Lublin
Capacity: 31,103	Capacity: 15,139	Capacity: 20,247	Capacity: 15,500

Group B	Group C	Group C	Warsaw Kielce Tychy Gdynia Kraków Lublin Bydgoszcz
Kielce	Kraków	Tychy
Kielce City Stadium	Marshal Józef Piłsudski Stadium	Tychy City Stadium
Capacity: 15,500	Capacity: 15,016	Capacity: 15,300

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.^[8]

Group stage

The group winners and the best runner-up advance to the semi-finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:^[8]

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group 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 group 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 group matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group 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 group stage, their rankings are determined by a penalty shoot-out (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).
8. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
9. Position in the UEFA under-21 national team coefficient ranking for the final draw.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Poland (H)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Knockout stage
2	A2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Possible qualification based on ranking
3	A3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	A4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Poland  v A2

June 2017 (2017-06)

Poland	v	A2

Poland  v A3

June 2017 (2017-06)

Poland	v	A3

A4 v  Poland

June 2017 (2017-06)

A4	v	Poland

Group B

Group C

Ranking of second-placed teams

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.^[8]

Bracket

Semi-finals

Final

References

External links

• Official website
• 2017 finals: Poland, UEFA.com