England among seeds in U17 elite round draw

Holders England and top-ranked Germany are among the teams in Pot A for the UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round draw, streamed live from Nyon at 10.40CET on 3 December.

Germany were given a bye through the qualifying round, in which 31 sides advanced from 13 mini-tournaments – including England, who beat the Netherlands in the 2014 final in Malta. Also involved are Norway, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 2016 hosts Azerbaijan, all hoping to qualify for the first time as the final tournament is expanded from eight to 16 teams for May's competition in Bulgaria.

Elite round draw procedure
There are four seeding pots according to the coefficient ranking list, with the eight countries with the highest coefficient in Pot A (Germany and the seven sides who won their three qualifying round games), the next eight in Pot B, and so on. No qualifying round group winners can play the runners-up from their section. Each group will comprise one side from each pot, with hosts then appointed to hold the mini-tournaments in March.

Pot A: Germany, Poland, Spain, England (holders), Austria, Portugal, Netherlands, Czech Republic

Pot B: Croatia, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Russia*, Romania, France, Romania, Belgium

Pot C: Norway, Georgia, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary, Serbia, Iceland, Sweden

Pot D: Greece, Israel, Slovenia, Wales, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine*

Bye to the finals: Bulgaria (hosts)

*Due to a decision of the UEFA Emergency Committee, Russia cannot be placed in a group with Ukraine.

• The eight group winners and the seven runners-up with the best record against the teams first and third in their pool qualify to join hosts Bulgaria in the expanded 16-nation finals from 6–22 May 2015.

• The top three in each finals group will progress to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile from 17 October to 8 November.