2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification

2016 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 15–20 September 2015; Elite round:; 5–10 April 2016
Teams	46 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	102
Goals scored	435 (4.26 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sippie Folkertsma (9 goals)

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

A total of 46 national teams entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and April 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 England and Spain, which received byes to the elite round as the two teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 44 teams were drawn into 11 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 11 group winners and the 11 runners-up advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: The 24 teams were drawn into six 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 six group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group 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 runner-up from the elite 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 19 November 2014, 10:15 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 Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2013 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2014 UEFA Women's 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. For political reasons, 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
England	14.667	1
Spain	12.000	2

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Sweden	11.833	3
France	11.667	4
Germany	11.333	5
Norway	10.333	6
Denmark	9.500	7
Finland	9.000	8
Belgium	8.833	9
Scotland	8.667	10
Republic of Ireland	8.500	11
Netherlands	8.000	12
Switzerland	7.500	13

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Portugal	7.000	14
Czech Republic	6.667	15
Serbia	6.667	16
Romania	6.167	17
Italy	6.167	18
Austria	6.000	19
Iceland	6.000	20
Russia	5.167	21
Northern Ireland	4.833	22
Wales	4.500	23
Poland	4.333	24

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Turkey	4.333	25
Ukraine	4.333	26
Hungary	4.333	27
Greece	4.000	28
Croatia	3.833	29
Slovenia	3.667	30
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.000	31
Macedonia	2.000	32
Cyprus	1.667	33
Belarus	1.500	34
Estonia	1.333	35

Pot D
Team	Coeff	Rank
Faroe Islands	1.333	36
Bulgaria	1.000	37
Azerbaijan	1.000	38
Moldova	0.667	39
Latvia	0.000	40
Lithuania	0.000	41
Israel	0.000	42
Kazakhstan	0.000	43
Montenegro	0.000	44
Georgia	0.000	45
Albania	0.000	46

Notes

Slovakia (Coeff: 2.333) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
Andorra, Armenia, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, and San Marino did not enter.

Groups

All times were CEST (UTC+2).

Group 1

Switzerland's 23–0 win against Georgia was the biggest margin in competition history.[8]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Switzerland (H)	3	3	0	32	0	+32	9	Elite round
2	Greece	3	2	1	9	8	+1	6	Elite round
3	Iceland	3	1	2	7	5	+2	3
4	Georgia	3	0	3	1	36	−35	0

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

15 September 2015