2017 UEFA European Under 17 Championship

Qualification

All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Croatia qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams will compete in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consists of two rounds: Qualifying round, which takes place in autumn 2016, and Elite round, which takes place in spring 2017.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).

Final draw

The final draw will be held in April 2017 in Croatia. The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams. Hosts Croatia will be assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams will be seeded according to their results in the qualification elite round, with the seven best elite round group winners (counting all elite round results) placed in Pot 1 and drawn to positions 1 and 2 in the groups, and the remaining eight teams placed in Pot 2 and drawn to positions 3 and 4 in the groups.

Venues

Croatian Football Federation submitted to UEFA a list of nine venues in seven host cities: Kantrida and Rujevica (in Rijeka), Aldo Drosina and Veruda (in Pula), Valbruna (in Rovinj), Veli Jože (in Poreč), Gradski stadion (in Crikvenica), Bahalin (in Novi Vinodolski), and Žuknica (in Kostrena).

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 18 players.

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01 and 17.02):

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
5. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
7. If only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings are determined by a penalty shoot-out (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. Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
9. Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
10. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time is played).

Quarter-finals

Winners qualify for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The two best losing quarter-finalists enter the FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off.

Ranking of losing quarter-finalists

To determine the two best losing quarter-finalists which enter the FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off, the losing quarter-finalists are ranked by the following criteria (Regulations Article 16.06):

1. Higher position in the group stage (i.e., group winners ahead of group runners-up);
2. Better results in the group stage (i.e., points, goal difference, goals scored);
3. Better results in the quarter-finals (i.e., points, goal difference, goals scored);
4. Lower disciplinary points in the group stage and quarter-finals combined;
5. Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
6. Drawing of lots.

FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off

Winner qualifies for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.