2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification

2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 18 September – 18 November 2015; Elite round:; 23–30 March 2016
Teams	53 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	120
Goals scored	352 (2.93 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ivan Šaponjić (6 goals)

The 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification was a men's under-19 football competition organised by UEFA to determine the seven national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Germany in the 2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament.[1]

A total of 53 national teams entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and March 2016.[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1997 were eligible to participate.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:[3]

Qualifying round: Apart from Spain, 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 13 group winners, the 13 runners-up, and the third-placed team with the best record against the first- and second-placed teams in its 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.

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[3]

Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the mini-tournament matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied;
Superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the mini-tournament, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (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).
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
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:[3]

Higher number of points;
Superior goal difference;
Higher number of goals scored;
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held on 3 December 2014, 09:50 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[4][5]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[6][7]

2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained two teams from Pot A and two teams from Pot B. For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan (due to the disputed status of Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine), could not be drawn in the same group.[2]

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Spain	13.667	1

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Portugal	11.833	2
Serbia	11.000	3
France	10.333	4
England	9.833	5
Turkey	9.500	6
Georgia	8.500	7
Austria	8.333	8
Ukraine	8.167	9
Denmark	7.667	10
Netherlands	7.500	11
Croatia	7.167	12
Greece	6.833	13
Czech Republic	6.167	14
Belgium	6.000	15
Republic of Ireland	6.000	16
Switzerland	6.000	17
Norway	5.833	18
Israel	5.833	19
Italy	5.667	20
Romania	5.500	21
Bulgaria	5.167	22
Hungary	5.000	23
Sweden	4.833	24
Russia	4.667	25
Scotland	4.667	26
Cyprus	4.167	27

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Montenegro	4.167	28
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4.167	29
Slovenia	4.167	30
Slovakia	4.167	31
Macedonia	4.000	32
Poland	3.667	33
Iceland	3.167	34
Armenia	3.000	35
Estonia	3.000	36
Albania	3.000	37
Wales	2.833	38
Northern Ireland	2.667	39
Latvia	2.333	40
Finland	2.333	41
Belarus	2.000	42
Lithuania	1.833	43
Azerbaijan	1.667	44
Malta	1.333	45
Luxembourg	1.000	46
Faroe Islands	1.000	47
Kazakhstan	0.333	48
Moldova	0.333	49
San Marino	0.000	50
Andorra	0.000	51
Liechtenstein	0.000	52
Gibraltar	0.000	53

Notes

Germany (Coeff: 8.833) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.

Groups

Times up to 24 October 2015 were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times were CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Slovenia	3	2	1	0	2	0	+2	7	Elite round
2	Scotland	3	2	0	1	6	1	+5	6	Elite round
3	Republic of Ireland (H)	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	3
4	Latvia	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Host.

13 November 2015