2023 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification explained

Tourney Name:	UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification
Year:	2023
Dates:	Round 1: Round 2: TBD 2023
Num Teams:	48
Confederations:	1
Matches:	98
Goals:	365
Top Scorer:	Ava Baker (8 goals)
Prevseason:	2022
Nextseason:	2024
Updated:	18 March 2023

The 2023 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying competition is a women's under-17 football competition that will determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Estonia in the 2023 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament.^[1]

48 teams, including hosts Estonia, entered the qualifying competition.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2006 are eligible to participate.

Format

Last season, UEFA implemented a new format for the women's U17 and U19 Euros, based on a league-style qualifying format.

The teams are divided in two leagues: League A (28 teams) and League B (20 teams).

Each league will play two rounds:

• Round 1: In each league, groups of 4 teams will play mini-tournaments. The winners of each mini-tournament in league B and the best runner-up will be promoted and the last-placed teams in league A mini-tournaments will be relegated.
• Round 2: The seven winners of League A will qualify for the final tournament. The six winners of mini-tournaments in league B and the best runner-up will be promoted and the last-placed teams in league A will be relegated for Round 1 of the next edition of the tournament.

Tiebreakers

In Round 1 and Round 2, teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01 and 17.02):^[2]

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 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);
8. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
9. Position in the applicable ranking:
   1. for teams in round 1, position in 2021–22 round 2 league rankings;
   2. for teams in round 2, position in the round 1 league ranking.

To determine the five best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Article 15.01):^[2]

1. Points;
2. Goal difference;
3. Goals scored;
4. Disciplinary points;
5. Position in the applicable ranking:
   1. for teams in round 1, position in the coefficient rankings;
   2. for teams in round 2, position in the round 1 league ranking.

Round 1

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 31 May 2022, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[3]

The teams were seeded according to their final group standings of the 2021–22 competition (Regulations Article 13.01).^[2]

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan would not be drawn in the same group.^[3]

To determine the 2021–22 Round 2 league rankings, the following criteria was followed:

1. higher position in the following classification:
   1. League A Round 2 group winners
   2. League A Round 2 group runners-up
   3. League A Round 2 third-placed teams
   4. Teams promoted from League B
   5. Teams relegated from League A
   6. League B Round 2 runners-up
   7. League B Round 2 third-placed teams
   8. League B Round 2 fourth-placed teams
2. higher number of points in all mini-tournament matches;
3. superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
4. higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
5. lower disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
6. higher position in the 2021–22 round 1 league rankings.

Teams entering League A^[4]

Pot 1 width=150 Team ! width=35 ! width=8 ! width=8 ! width=8 3 6 6 3 3 3 3 1 3 3 1 2 3 1 1 1 0 1 0 –1 2

Pot 2 width=120 Team ! width=35 ! width=12 ! width=12 ! width=12 3 1 3 1 0 1 0 –1 2 0 –1 1 0 –1 0 0 –3 0 0 –6 0

Pot 3 width=190 Team ! width=35 ! width=12 ! width=12 ! width=12 3 –1 2 0 –3 2 0 –4 2 0 –5 1 0 –5 0 0 –6 1

Pot 4 width=210 Team ! width=35 ! width=10 ! width=10 ! width=10 ! width=10 6 15 15 0 6 15 15 1 6 8 9 1 6 8 9 2 6 4 9 6 3 4 3 4 6

Teams entering League B

Pot 1 width=150 Team ! width=35 ! width=35 ! width=35 ! width=35 1 –5 1 0 –12 1 0 –18 0 0 –24 1 0 –29 1

Pot 2 width=150 Team ! width=35 ! width=35 ! width=35 ! width=35 3 2 7 3 2 5 3 0 4 3 –2 3 3 –4 4 0 –4 2

Pot 3 width=150 Team ! width=35 ! width=35 ! width=35 ! width=35 0 –5 2 0 –6 0 0 –11 2 0 –12 0 0 –17 2 1 –5 0 0 –10 0

League A

Hosts will be appointed for each mini-tournament. All the matches will be played between 1 August and 20 November 2022.

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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Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the best runner-up, only the results of the runner-up teams against the first and third-placed teams in their group are taken into account.

Round 2

Draw

The 21 teams of Round 1 League A and the 7 teams of Round 2 League B (six group winners and the best runner-up) are drawn in seven groups of four teams.

The teams were seeded according to their results in the round 1 (Regulations Article 15.01).^[5]

Teams entering League A

League A

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

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

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

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 B6

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Ranking of second-placed teams

To determine the best runner-up, only the results of the runner-up teams against the first-placed team in their group are taken into account.

Qualified teams

Seven teams will qualify for the final tournament along with hosts Estonia.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	data-sort-type="number"	Previous appearances in Under-17 Euro^1 only U-17 era (since 2008)
			0 (debut)
			2 (2013, 2018)
			7 (2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
			12 (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
			2 (2012, 2015)
			8 (2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2022)
			11 (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022)
			1 (2013)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Goalscorers

In the Round 1

In the Round 2

In total,

Notes and References

1. Web site: Estonia, Sweden, Faroe Islands to host Women's U17 EURO in 2023, 2024, 2025. UEFA.com. 19 April 2021.
2. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship, 2022/23. UEFA. 24 May 2022.
3. Web site: 2022/23 Women's Under-17 EURO round 1 draw made. UEFA.com. 31 May 2022 . UEFA.
4. Web site: UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship 2021/22. UEFA.com. UEFA.
5. Web site: Regulations of the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship. UEFA.com. UEFA.