Qualifying for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began in May 2006.
Contents
Netherlands qualify as hosts and are exempt from qualifying. Of UEFA's 52 member countries, only the Faroe Islands chose not compete. That left 50 nations attempting to qualify for the 7 remaining spots at the finals.
The competition's structure is as follows:
- The 16 lowest ranked nations played-off (on a home-and-away basis) before the qualifying group stage, to eliminate 8 teams.
- The remaining 42 teams formed 14 three-team groups, each team playing one home match and one away match.
- The 14 group winners played-off (on a home-and-away basis) to decide the seven qualifying nations.
Preliminary round
Teams went into the preliminary round already knowing who they would face should they get through.
Play-offs
The 14 group winners were paired up. The winners over two legs qualified for the finals. The draw took place in Nyon, Switzerland on 8 September 2006.
References
2007 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA