2022/23 UEFA Youth League

[Lorric]

Time to have a look at our teams. Unfortunately Manchester City won the title for the third straight year, beating Southampton 2-1 in the North champ vs South champ final, so again we won't have a team on the Champions Path.

For our other entries, just as in the full team Premier League, Liverpool were runner up to Manchester City in the North. The Southern entries didn't do well. Chelsea were 7th in the South and Tottenham 9th. Tottenham were bad, Chelsea to be fair had a respectable record with 46pts from 26 games and a +17GD. Tottenham got 31, losing 15/26 games with a -14 GD.

[Dragonite]

Time to have a look at our teams. Unfortunately Manchester City won the title for the third straight year, beating Southampton 2-1 in the North champ vs South champ final, so again we won't have a team on the Champions Path.

For our other entries, just as in the full team Premier League, Liverpool were runner up to Manchester City in the North. The Southern entries didn't do well. Chelsea were 7th in the South and Tottenham 9th. Tottenham were bad, Chelsea to be fair had a respectable record with 46pts from 26 games and a +17GD. Tottenham got 31, losing 15/26 games with a -14 GD.

That's really strange. How can Manchester City win domestically three times in a row, while in the UEFA Youth League they can't even progress from the group stage three times in a row?

[Oldelpaso]

Time to have a look at our teams. Unfortunately Manchester City won the title for the third straight year, beating Southampton 2-1 in the North champ vs South champ final, so again we won't have a team on the Champions Path.

For our other entries, just as in the full team Premier League, Liverpool were runner up to Manchester City in the North. The Southern entries didn't do well. Chelsea were 7th in the South and Tottenham 9th. Tottenham were bad, Chelsea to be fair had a respectable record with 46pts from 26 games and a +17GD. Tottenham got 31, losing 15/26 games with a -14 GD.

That's really strange. How can Manchester City win domestically three times in a row, while in the UEFA Youth League they can't even progress from the group stage three times in a row?

Doing well domestically and underperforming in Europe? Sounds like they're just imitating the first team

More seriously, City have a policy of regularly promoting promising players to older age groups. I don't know about the current season, but in 2020-21 City won the Premier Youth League despite fielding the youngest average age in the competition. It may be that this approach works domestically but falls short on a continental level.

Since the youth competitions in England moved from u-19 to u-18 there's been something of a development gap. After u-18 is Premier League 2 (effectively the reserve competition). Its u-23 with limited overage numbers, and isn't very effective for development. At a club like City, the very best ones like Foden and Palmer go straight to first team, but a lot of the "might make it" players go out on loan. A good example would be Callum Doyle, the England u-19 defender who just played in the play off final for Sunderland. He'd have been eligible for the Youth League this year but was playing senior football instead. Chelsea do similar.

Of course, several other countries have reserve teams in senior leagues. This is anathema in England, where even fifth level teams can be capable of drawing crowds of 10,000 for big games. So the loan system is used instead.

[Juliusz]

Zagłębie Lubin qualified for UYL champions path as champions of Central Junior League in Poland.

Before the last match, Zagłębie and Arka Gdynia were equal on points and in the last matchday they played each other. Zagłębie won despite trailing 0-1 at HT and are the youth champions in Poland for the third time.

Another team from Poland can follow in the competition if senior team of Lech Poznań qualifies for CL GS.

[Park]

AZ qualified for UYL champions path. They won 2-0 against PSV and became champion today.
This season they reached the last 16 in the UYL, next season a new chance.
PSV can now only qualify if the senior team qualifies for CL GS.

[rpo.castro]

Benfica U-19 portuguese champions. Tied in points with Porto, they had a better goal difference by just one goal scored at 90+5 in last match.

[Lyonnais]

Nantes defeated Monaco in the French U19 final 3-2 and thus will represent France in the youth league.

[Lorric]

Nantes defeated Monaco in the French U19 final 3-2 and thus will represent France in the youth league.

Do you have a North / South setup too?

[amenina]

Let's make a list so we can keep track of the participating teams. Feel free to add the youth domestic champions.

UEFA Champions League Path (32 teams)
England: Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur
Spain: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla
Italy: AC Milan, Internazionale, Napoli, Juventus
Germany: Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Levekusen, RB Leipzig
France: Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Marseille
Portugal: Porto, Sporting Lisbon
Netherlands: Ajax
Belgium: Club Brugge
Austria: Red Bull Salzburg
Scotland: Celtic
Ukraine: Shakhtar Donetsk
6 more teams TBD from UCL qualifying

Domestic Champions Path (32 teams)
(Domestic champions that have qualified for UCL group stage will have their place vacated)
(*) May still qualify for UCL group stage
1 England: None (vacated by Manchester City)
2 Spain: None (vacated by Barcelona)
3 Italy: None (vacated by Internazionale)
4 Germany: None (vacated by Borussia Dortmund)
5 France: Nantes
6 Portugal: Benfica (*)
7 Netherlands: AZ
8 Russia: None (banned)
9 Belgium: Genk
10 Austria: None (vacated by Red Bull Salzburg)
11 Scotland: Hibernian
12 Ukraine: Rukh Lviv
13 Turkey: Galatasaray
14 Denmark: Copenhagen (*)
15 Cyprus: Omonia
16 Serbia: Red Star Belgrade (*)
17 Czech Republic: Slavia Praha
18 Croatia: Hajduk Split
19 Switzerland:
20 Greece: Panathinaikos
21 Israel: Ashdod
22 Norway: Molde
23 Sweden: AIK
24 Bulgaria: Slavia Sofia
25 Romania: Csikszereda
26 Azerbaijan: Gabala
27 Kazakhstan:
28 Hungary: MTK
29 Belarus:
30 Poland: Zaglebie Lubin
31 Slovenia: Domzale
32 Slovakia: AS Trencin
33 Liechtenstein: None (no league)
34 Lithuania:
35 Luxembourg:
36 Bosnia and Herzegovina: Borac Banja Luka
37 Republic of Ireland: Shamrock Rovers (*)
38 North Macedonia:
39 Armenia:
----
(Teams below this line may still qualify if there are vacancies)
40 Latvia:
41 Albania: Apolonia
42 Northern Ireland:
43 Georgia:
44 Finland:
45 Moldova: Sheriff Tiraspol (*)
46 Malta:
47 Faroe Islands:
48 Kosovo:
49 Gibraltar:
50 Montengro:
51 Wales:
52 Iceland:
53 Estonia:
54 Andorra:
55 San Marino:

[amenina]

Good news for the small countries this season as the youth domestic champions from the big four associations all qualified for UCL group stage: Manchester City, Barcelona, Internazionale, and Borussia Dortmund.

[quelhar]

17 Czech Republic: Slavia Praha
...
32 Slovakia: AS Trenčín

[amenina]

In Austria, UYL powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg were once again Jugendliga U18 champions, so their place is vacated.

In Scotland, Croatia and Greece, Hibernian, Hajduk Split and Panathinaikos were the champions of CAS Elite Under-18 League, Prva HNL Juniori and Super League K19 respectively.

In Ukraine, Rukh Lviv won two matches played in Poland in May to go top of the table. Since the season cannot be finished, they won the right to be the UYL representatives.

In Denmark and Serbia, Copenhagen and Red Star Belgrade were both senior and U19 champions. So while they are guaranteed to play in UYL, their path is yet unknown.

[amirbachar]

In Israel Ashdod won the youth league, and will participate in the CH Path

[amenina]

A few more youth champions which will play in 2022-23 UYL domestic champions path:
Belgium: Genk (U18 championship)
Turkey: Galatasaray (U19 Elit)
Cyprus: Omonia (K19 championship)
Norway: Molde (NM G19 Telenor Cup)
Sweden: AIK (P17 Allsvenskan)
Bulgaria: Slavia Sofia (BFU U18 Cup)
Romania: Csikszereda (Ligii Elitelor U19)
Hungary: MTK (U19 championship)

In the Republic of Ireland, Shamrock Rovers won both the senior and youth titles, so their path is yet to be confirmed.

[Club-Mate]

In Austria, UYL powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg were once again Jugendliga U18 champions, so their place is vacated.

I do regret this much. Salzburg blocks all the other Austrian teams esp. good ones like Rapid and Austria and it looks like forever. In this case the vice champion should get a place in the domestic path.
Austria Wien when played last time in YCL even progressed from GS second behind Atletico but ahead of Porto and Zenit.
Do the Youth teams travel together with the Senior teams to away matches? otherwise I do not see any reason for this setup anymore. There should be an official ranking for YCL