2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship

2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship
	The official logo of the tournament
Tournament details
Host country	Malta
Dates	9–21 May
Teams	53 (qualification); 8 (finals)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	England (2nd title)
Runners-up	Netherlands
Tournament statistics
Matches played	15
Goals scored	46 (3.07 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Dominic Solanke; Jari Schuurman; (4 goals)
Best player(s)	Steven Bergwijn[1]

The 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 13th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship, an annual football competition between men's under-17 national teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament was hosted for the first time in Malta, from 9 to 21 May 2014, after their bid was selected by the UEFA Executive Committee on 20 March 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey.[2]

Fifty-three teams participated in a two-round qualification stage, taking place between September 2013 and March 2014, to determine the seven teams joining the hosts. Players born after 1 January 1997 were eligible to participate in this competition.[3] This edition marked the first appearance of a national team from Gibraltar,[4] and was the first UEFA competition allowing referees to use a vanishing spray when setting free kicks.[5] Live broadcast was provided by Eurosport 2 and Eurosport International.[6]

England beat the Netherlands in the final on penalties to secure their second European under-17 title, four years after their first, and the second to be won by coach John Peacock. The 2013 champions, Russia, failed to qualify for the final tournament.

Qualification

Qualification for the final tournament of the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship consisted of two rounds: a qualifying round and an elite round. In the qualifying round, 53 national teams competed in 13 groups of four teams, with each group winner and runner-up, plus the best third-placed team, advancing to the elite round. There, the 27 first-round qualifiers plus Germany, who was given a bye, were distributed in seven groups of four teams. The winner of each group qualified for the final tournament.

Qualified teams

Country	Qualified as	Previous appearances in tournament¹
Malta	Hosts	0 (debut)
Switzerland	Group 1 winner	6 (2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013)
Turkey	Group 2 winner	5 (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010)
Netherlands	Group 3 winner	7 (2002, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012)
England	Group 4 winner	8 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Germany	Group 5 winner	5 (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012)
Scotland	Group 6 winner	1 (2008)
Portugal	Group 7 winner	4 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2010)

¹ Only counted appearances for under-17 era (bold indicates champion for that year, while italic indicates hosts)

Final draw

The draw for the group stage of the final tournament was held on 9 April 2014 at Saint James Cavalier in Valletta. It was conducted by UEFA's Youth and Amateur Football Committee chairman Jim Boyce, along with Fr. Hilary Tagliaferro and former Maltese international David Carabott. The host team, Malta, was automatically assigned as team one in group A, while the remaining teams were drawn successively in the order B1, A2, B2, A3, B3, A4 and B4.[7][8]

Venues

Ta' Qali

Paola

Xewkija

Map of venues

Ta' Qali National Stadium, Ta' Qali, (capacity: 18,000)
Hibernians Ground, Paola (capacity: 2,000)
Gozo Stadium, Xewkija (capacity: 4,000)

Squads

Match officials

Referees

Assistant referees

István Albert (Hungary)
Audrius Jagintavičius (Lithuania)
Dag-Roger Nebben (Norway)
Mesrop Ghazaryan (Armenia)
David Elias Biton (Israel)
Oleksandr Korniyko (Ukraine)
Jure Praprotnik (Slovenia)
David Chigogidze (Georgia)

Fourth officials

Clayton Pisani (Malta)
Alan Mario Sant (Malta)

Group stage

Map of the 2014 UEFA European Under-17 Championship finalist teams and their performances. The inset shows Malta (host).

Fixtures and match schedule were confirmed by UEFA on 15 April 2014.[6]

Tie-breaking

If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied:[3]

Higher number of points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the matches played between the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;

If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 4 to 7 apply.

Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
Respect Fair play ranking of the teams in question (final tournament);
Drawing of lots.

If only two teams are tied (according to criteria 1–7) after having met in the last match of the group stage, their ranking is determined by a penalty shoot-out.

Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals

All times are in Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00).

Group A

Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Netherlands	3	3	0	10	4	+6	9
England	3	2	1	7	3	+4	6
Turkey	3	1	2	7	7	0	3
Malta	3	0	3	2	12	−10	0

Source:

9 May 2014