https://www.uefa.com/under17/news/0283- ... -december/
The UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round draw, streamed live at 11:30 CET on 7 December, will split 32 teams into eight groups of four to be played as single-venue mini-tournaments in March 2024. They will compete for 15 spots alongside hosts Cyprus in the finals from 20 May to 5 June.
Contenders
Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany (holders), Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands (bye), Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, Ukraine, Wales
The top-seeded Netherlands, who enter directly in this round, are joined by the 31 teams that came through the qualifying round that ended on 21 November.
The eight elite round group winners and seven runners-up with the best records will qualify for the final tournament.
Draw procedure: https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/02 ... 4_-_en.pdf
The 32 associations participating in the elite round are split into four pots based on their results in the qualifying round. https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/02 ... nts_er.pdf
Pot A: Netherlands, Spain, England, Portugal, Wales, Poland, Türkiye, Greece
Pot B: Serbia, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Czechia, Belgium
Pot C: Hungary, Sweden, Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland
Pot D: Romania, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland
The draw will start with Pot A and end with Pot D. Each pot will be emptied before moving to the next pot.
The teams in Pot A will be drawn one after another and placed in the first position in Groups 1 to 8.
The teams in Pot B will be drawn one after another and each one placed in the second position in one of the eight groups, and the procedure repeated for Pots C (third position) and Pot D (fourth position).
On the basis of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and the UEFA Emergency Panel, valid at the time of the draws, the following countries cannot be drawn into the same group: Belarus and Ukraine.
The teams will be allocated to groups in ascending order in such a way as to ensure that no winners and runners-up from the same qualifying group meet each other in the elite round. If clashes arise, the team drawn will be moved to the next available group. The draw continues by first filling the slot left vacant. If clashes arise in the last three or four groups, the teams will be allocated to groups appropriately. There is no protection with regard to teams that finished third in their qualifying group.
Team guide
Germany are the defending champions, after beating France last June in Hungary to win their second U17 title since the switch to the current classification in 2001/02. Poland and Spain were beaten semi-finalists, while England, Republic of Ireland, Serbia and Switzerland also reached the quarter-finals.
Other past U17 winners in the draw other than Germany are Netherlands (4), France (3), Spain (3), England (1), Portugal (2), Switzerland (1), Türkiye (1).
England, Netherlands and Spain are aiming to reach a record 16th final tournament.
