2026 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification


The 2026 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification is an under-17 men's national football team competition that will determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Estonia in the 2026 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.
Russia were excluded from the tournament due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, including hosts Estonia, 54 teams entered this qualification competition. The Round 1 of the qualification was played from 1 October to 18 November 2025, while the Round 2 will be played in spring 2026. Players born on or after 1 January 2009 are eligible to participate.

Format

The qualification consists of two rounds; both of them consist of several groups, which are played as single-round-robin mini-tournaments, with one team from each group selected as the host after the draw.
  • Round 1: 54 teams were drawn into 14 groups of three or four. The top two teams from each group advanced to Round 2 League A; the other teams advanced to Round 2 League B.
  • Round 2:
  • *League A: 28 teams will be drawn into seven groups of four. The group winners will qualify for the final tournament. If Estonia, as the host of the final tournament, wins one of these groups, the best runner-up team will also qualify. Teams that will finish fourth will be relegated to Round 1 League B for the next season.
  • *League B: 26 teams will be drawn into seven groups of three or four. The group winners will be promoted to Round 1 League A for the next season.

Tiebreakers

In a group, teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings :
  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. 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;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above ;
  8. Disciplinary points ;
  9. Position in the applicable ranking:
  10. #for teams in Round 1, position in the 2024–25 qualification overall rankings;
  11. #for teams in Round 2, position in the Round 1 overall rankings.

Round 1

Draw

The draw for the Round 1 was held on 5 December 2024 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The teams were seeded according to their results in Round 1 of the 2024–25 qualification. The matches of the first-, the second- and the third-placed teams against the fourth-placed teams in their group did not count towards this ranking. To determine this ranking, the following criteria were followed :
  1. higher position in the group;
  2. higher number of points;
  3. superior goal difference;
  4. higher number of goals scored;
  5. lower disciplinary points.
The teams were allocated to four drawing pots. Teams in the same pot would be drawn into different groups. Each group contains one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and 12 groups contain 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: Spain and Gibraltar, Belarus and Ukraine, Kosovo and Serbia. Due to the current situation, Ukraine, Israel and Belarus cannot host tournaments on their territory.
TeamPosition in group
'Winner, Group 961111
'Winner, Group 5669
Winner, Group 1668
'Winner, Group 11633
'Winner, Group 4624
'Winner, Group 12457
'Winner, Group 7436
'Winner, Group 10435
'Winner, Group 2435
'Winner, Group 6435
'Winner, Group 3424
'Winner, Group 13423
'Winner, Group 14412
'Winner, Group 8304

TeamPosition in group
'Runner-up, Group 74611
'Runner-up, Group 12436
'Runner-up, Group 2414
'Runner-up, Group 13412
Runner-up, Group 3336
'Runner-up, Group 14323
Runner-up, Group 4315
'Runner-up, Group 11303
'Runner-up, Group 13–14
'Runner-up, Group 93–64
Runner-up, Group 10203
Runner-up, Group 6202
'Runner-up, Group 81–23
Runner-up, Group 51–43

TeamPosition in group
Third, Group 8425
Third, Group 51–24
'Third, Group 101–31
Third, Group 141–31
'Third, Group 61–30
Third, Group 31–51
Third, Group 40–33
'Third, Group 110–32
Third, Group 130–30
Third, Group 20–41
Third, Group 90–53
Third, Group 10–51
'Third, Group 120–81
Third, Group 70–92

TeamPosition in group
'Last, Group 83–43
'Last, Group 41–55
Last, Group 61–71
Last, Group 120–83
Last, Group 20–111
Last, Group 100–110
Last, Group 10–121
Last, Group 70–141
Last, Group 90–140
Last, Group 30–140
Last, Group 110–190
Last, Group 50–240

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA.

Group 1

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Group 2

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Group 3

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Group 4

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Group 5

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Group 6

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Group 7

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Group 8

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Group 9

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Group 10

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Group 11

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Group 12

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Group 13

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Group 14

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Round 2

Draw

The draw for Round 2 was made at 12:15 CET on 10 December at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
The 28 teams of Round 1 are drawn in seven groups of four teams in League A. The bottom two teams in groups of 4 teams, and the last ranked team in groups of 3 teams, will be relegated to League B for round 2.
The teams are seeded according to their results in the round 1.

League A

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA.

Group A1

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Group A2

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Group A3

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Group A4

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Group A5

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Group A6

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Group A7

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League B

Group B1

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Group B2

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Group B3

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Group B4

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Group B5

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Group B6

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Group B7

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Goalscorers

In the '''Round 1,'''