2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification

2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 6 October – 16 November 2021; Elite round:; 23 March – 7 June 2022
Teams	54 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	117
Goals scored	373 (3.19 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Orri Steinn Óskarsson; Wilfried Gnonto; (5 goals each)
	← 2019 ; 2020 ; 2021 2023 →

The 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a men's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Slovakia in the 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament.^[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2003 were eligible to participate.

Originally, the qualifying competition would use a new format with teams split into three different leagues with promotion and relegation, with the draw of the first round under the new format already held in December 2019. However, on 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that the introduction of the new format had been postponed to the next edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and qualification for this edition would use the previous format involving two rounds only.^[2]

Apart from Slovakia, 53 of the remaining 54 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition, where the original format consisted of a qualifying round that took place in autumn 2021, and an elite round that took place in spring and summer 2022.^[3]

Format edit

The qualifying competition consisted of the following two rounds:

Qualifying round: Apart from Portugal, which received a bye to the elite round as the team with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams were drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The thirteen group winners, thirteen runners-up, and the third-placed team with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.

The schedule of each group was as follows, with two rest days between each matchday (Regulations Article 20.04):^[4]

Group schedule
Matchday	Matches
Matchday 1	1 v 4, 3 v 2
Matchday 2	1 v 3, 2 v 4
Matchday 3	2 v 1, 4 v 3

Tiebreakers edit

In the qualifying round and elite round, teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):^[4]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

To determine the best third-placed team from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Articles 15.01 and 15.02):^[4]

Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points (total 3 matches);
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw;
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round edit

Draw edit

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 3 December 2019, 10:00 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.^[3]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:^[5]^[6]

2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, the following pairs of teams could not be drawn in the same group: Spain and Gibraltar, Ukraine and Russia, Serbia and Kosovo, Russia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Final tournament hosts
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Slovakia	10.167	—

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Portugal	29.389	1

Teams entering qualifying round

Pot A
Team	Coeff.	Rank
France	23.778	2
England	23.000	3
Italy	21.889	4
Netherlands	16.778	5
Czech Republic	16.722	6
Spain	16.222	7
Germany	15.833	8
Ukraine	14.389	9
Republic of Ireland	13.278	10
Norway	12.611	11
Turkey	12.611	12
Austria	11.833	13
Croatia	11.611	14

Pot B
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Greece	11.000	15
Belgium	10.667	16
Sweden	10.278	17
Serbia	10.167	18
Poland	10.167	19
Scotland	9.833	20
Israel	9.833	21
Bulgaria	9.722	22
Hungary	9.167	23
Romania	8.833	24
Denmark	8.833	25
Slovenia	8.167	26
Georgia	7.833	27

Pot C
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Russia	7.333	28
Finland	7.333	29
Switzerland	7.000	30
Bosnia and Herzegovina	6.667	31
Cyprus	5.333	32
Wales	5.000	33
Latvia	4.667	34
Iceland	4.667	35
Azerbaijan	4.500	36
North Macedonia	4.333	37
Northern Ireland	4.333	38
Belarus	4.333	39
Armenia	3.667	40

Pot D
Team	Coeff.	Rank
Montenegro	3.333	41
Kosovo	3.167	42
Malta	2.333	43
Albania	2.000	44
Kazakhstan	1.667	45
Andorra	1.667	46
Luxembourg	1.667	47
Moldova	1.333	48
Estonia	1.333	49
Faroe Islands	1.333	50
Lithuania	1.000	51
Gibraltar	0.333	52
San Marino	0.000	53

Notes

Teams marked in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Did not enter
Liechtenstein

Groups edit

The qualifying round was originally scheduled to be played by 17 November 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, UEFA announced on 13 August 2020 that after consultation with the 55 member associations, the qualifying round would be delayed to March 2021.^[7]

Times up to 27 March 2022 are CET (UTC+1), thereafter times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1 edit

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	2	1	0	6	0	+6	7	Elite round
2	Sweden (H)	3	2	0	1	4	3	+1	6	Elite round
3	Switzerland	3	1	1	1	7	2	+5	4
4	Andorra	3	0	0	3	0	12	−12	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

10 November 2021