The 2026 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification is an under-17 men's national football team competition that will determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Estonia in the 2026 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.

Russia were excluded from the tournament due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Therefore, including hosts Estonia, 54 teams entered this qualification competition. The Round 1 of the qualification was played from 1 October to 18 November 2025, while the Round 2 will be played in spring 2026. Players born on or after 1 January 2009 are eligible to participate.

Format The qualification consisted of two rounds; both of them consisted of several groups, which were played as single-round-robin mini-tournaments, with one team from each group selected as the host after the draw.

Round 1: 54 teams were drawn into 14 groups of three or four. The top two teams from each group advanced to Round 2 League A; the other teams advanced to Round 2 League B. Round 2: League A: 28 teams were drawn into seven groups of four. The group winners qualified for the final tournament. If Estonia, as the host of the final tournament, won one of these groups, the best runner-up team also qualified. Teams that finished fourth were relegated to Round 1 League B for the next season. League B: 26 teams were drawn into seven groups of three or four. The group winners were promoted to Round 1 League A for the next season.

In addition, the qualification also acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, with Round 1 being the first round and Round 2 League A being the final round of World Cup qualifying. The winners of each group in Round 2 League A, along with the four best second-placed teams, qualified for the 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Tiebreakers In a group, 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):

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 were 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); Position in the applicable ranking: for teams in Round 1, position in the 2024–25 qualification overall rankings; for teams in Round 2, position in the Round 1 overall rankings.

Round 1 Draw The draw for Round 1 was held on 5 December 2024 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

The teams were seeded according to their results in Round 1 of the 2024–25 qualification. The matches of the first-, the second- and the third-placed teams against the fourth-placed teams in their group did not count towards this ranking. To determine this ranking, the following criteria were followed (Regulations Article 15.03):

higher position in the group; higher number of points; superior goal difference; higher number of goals scored; lower disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points).

The teams were allocated to four drawing pots. Teams in the same pot were drawn into different groups. Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and 12 groups contained 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, Belarus and Ukraine, Kosovo and Serbia. Due to the ongoing situation, Ukraine, Israel and Belarus could not host tournaments on their territory.

+Pot A Team Position in group Winner, Group 9 6 11 11 Winner, Group 5 6 6 9 Winner, Group 1 6 6 8 Winner, Group 11 6 3 3 Winner, Group 4 6 2 4 Winner, Group 12 4 5 7 Winner, Group 7 4 3 6 Winner, Group 10 4 3 5 Winner, Group 2 4 3 5 Winner, Group 6 4 3 5 Winner, Group 3 4 2 4 Winner, Group 13 4 2 3 Winner, Group 14 4 1 2 Winner, Group 8 3 0 4

+Pot B Team Position in group Runner-up, Group 7 4 6 11 Runner-up, Group 12 4 3 6 Runner-up, Group 2 4 1 4 Runner-up, Group 13 4 1 2 Runner-up, Group 3 3 3 6 Runner-up, Group 14 3 2 3 Runner-up, Group 4 3 1 5 Runner-up, Group 11 3 0 3 Runner-up, Group 1 3 –1 4 Runner-up, Group 9 3 –6 4 Runner-up, Group 10 2 0 3 Runner-up, Group 6 2 0 2 Runner-up, Group 8 1 –2 3 Runner-up, Group 5 1 –4 3

+Pot C Team Position in group Third, Group 8 4 2 5 Third, Group 5 1 –2 4 Third, Group 10 1 –3 1 Third, Group 14 1 –3 1 Third, Group 6 1 –3 0 Third, Group 3 1 –5 1 Third, Group 4 0 –3 3 Third, Group 11 0 –3 2 Third, Group 13 0 –3 0 Third, Group 2 0 –4 1 Third, Group 9 0 –5 3 Third, Group 1 0 –5 1 Third, Group 12 0 –8 1 Third, Group 7 0 –9 2

+Pot D Team Position in group Last, Group 8 3 –4 3 Last, Group 4 1 –5 5 Last, Group 6 1 –7 1 Last, Group 12 0 –8 3 Last, Group 2 0 –11 1 Last, Group 10 0 –11 0 Last, Group 1 0 –12 1 Last, Group 7 0 –14 1 Last, Group 9 0 –14 0 Last, Group 3 0 –14 0 Last, Group 11 0 –19 0 Last, Group 5 0 –24 0

Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Group 10

Group 11

Group 12

Group 13

Group 14

Round 2 Draw The draw for Round 2 was made at 12:15 CET on 10 December at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

The 28 teams of Round 1 (top 2 of each group) were drawn in seven groups of four teams in League A. The bottom two teams in groups of 4 teams, and the last ranked team in groups of 3 teams, were relegated to League B for Round 2.

The teams were seeded according to their results in Round 1 (Regulations Article 15.01).

Teams entering League A

1 – Slovenia and Norway were tied in all markers; the 2024/25 R2 overall rankings were used: Slovenia 12th, Norway 28th.

Teams entering League B

League A Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).

Group A1

Group A2

Group A3

Group A4

Group A5

Group A6

Group A7

Ranking of second-placed teams

League B Group B1

Group B2

Group B3

Group B4

Group B5

Group B6

Group B7 The matches will be played at a neutral venue in Antalya, Turkey.

Goalscorers In Round 1,

In Round 2,

In total,

Notes

References

External links Official website of UEFA Under-17 Championship