Host country Sweden Venue(s) 4 (in 4 host cities) Runners-up England | Dates 15 June – 29 June Champions Germany (1st title) | |
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Teams 8 (finals)
51 (qualifying) | ||
The 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship began on 15 June 2009, and was the 17th UEFA European Under-21 Championship. This was the first tournament after the competition reverted to a two-year format, following the single-year 2006–07 competition, which allowed the change to odd-numbered years. Sweden hosted the final tournament in June 2009; therefore, their under-21 team qualified automatically. 51 of the 52 other nations in UEFA's jurisdiction, including Montenegro and Serbia who competed separately for the first time, went through a series of qualifiers to decide the seven other teams to join Sweden at the finals. Andorra did not take part. Players born on or after 1 January 1986 were eligible to play in this competition.
Contents
Qualification groups
The 51 nations were divided into ten qualification groups, with group matches scheduled from 31 May 2007 until 10 September 2008. The draw for the qualifying round was made on 13 February 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Play-offs
The ten group winners and four best runners-up from the group stage met in play-offs to determine the seven qualifying nations; the play-off matches were in October 2008.
Qualified teams
The finals' tournament draw took place on 3 December 2008 at the Svenska Mässan exhibition centre, Gothenburg. Prior to the final draw, Sweden had been seeded first in Group A as hosts of the tournament, while Spain were seeded first in Group B.
Final draw
Pot A
Pot B
Pot C
The first pot contained the top seeds, these would have been host nation Sweden and the reigning champions, The Netherlands. However, The Netherlands did not qualify meaning that the team with the best qualifying record, Spain, took their place. Sweden and Spain were then automatically assigned to A1 and B1 respectively. The second pot contained the teams with the next two best records in qualifying: these were England and Italy. England were drawn into position B3 and Italy into A3. The final pot contained the other four qualified teams: Serbia, Finland, Germany and Belarus. Belarus were drawn first into position A2, Germany went into B2, Serbia into A4 and Finland into B4.
Venues
The following venues were chosen to hold the final tournament matches:
Sponsorship issues
Following the refusal of the Swedish hamburger chain Max to close their restaurant at Borås Arena during the tournament (as they are not an official UEFA sponsor), UEFA disqualified Borås Arena from hosting games during the tournament. There is a contract between UEFA and the city and between UEFA and its sponsors saying that the UEFA sponsors shall have monopoly around the arena. A city cannot force Max to close down even if it happened to sign a contract with someone saying so, as Max have a tenancy agreement with the city.
On 2 September 2008, the Swedish Football Association nominated Örjans Vall in Halmstad as a replacement venue for Borås Arena, and they officially became the fourth host city a few days later. They were awarded the three group stage games that were to be hosted by Borås Arena, while the second semi-final was moved from Borås to Helsingborg and Olympia.
Swedbank Stadion was referred to as Malmö New Stadium during the tournament, as Swedbank – which owns the naming rights to the stadium – are not official UEFA sponsors.
Matches
All times are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).
Match ball
The match ball for the competition is called the Adidas Terrapass, which was unveiled at the tournament draw in Gothenburg on 3 December. The ball is bright blue and yellow, the colours of the Swedish flag. It features 12 watermarks including one containing a map of Europe and one of the tournament logo. It is composed of 14 thermally bonded panels, which are claimed to improve the ball's accuracy and swerve.