UEFA eEURO 2021 qualifiers start
Monday, March 15, 2021
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Qualifying for this summer’s eEURO efootball tournament gets under way live on UEFA’s YouTube channel, with 55 teams looking to book their place in the final tournament in July.
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All 55 of UEFA’s member national associations will be taking part in the eEURO 2021 qualifiers, to see who will eventually be crowned champions of Europe on 10 July – a day before the real-world UEFA EURO 2020 final takes place at Wembley Stadium.
As was the case for the competition’s first edition last year, with 55 countries involved, eEURO 2021 has the distinction of being the largest ever national team efootball tournament. The teams, divided into ten groups, will play each other twice in a ‘home and away’ format. Every encounter will consist of two 1v1 matches, with the aggregate score over the two games determining the outcome. The qualifying matches will be played across March and April.
The ten group winners will qualify directly for the final tournament, which will feature 16 teams. The ten runners-up will enter a play-off tournament on 10 and 17 May to decide the other six finalists.
“The UEFA eEURO has given efootball enthusiasts the chance to dream of representing their country on the biggest stage and all competing teams will be looking to emulate Italy who were victorious last year,” said UEFA marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein.
“The inaugural UEFA eEURO was an undoubted success, with over 15 million people having watched competition footage across UEFA’s platforms. We have seen a massive growth in the popularity of efootball over the past few years and eEURO 2021 will continue to give us the opportunity to connect with new and existing fans of national team football.”
Each national association will participate with a national efootball team of between two and four gamers. UEFA eEURO 2021 will see players compete exclusively on KONAMI’s eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE.
A total of €100,000 in cash prizes will be split between all the finalists, including €40,000 for the winners. Matches will be shown live on UEFA's official YouTube channel.
Italy won the inaugural UEFA eEURO last summer, defeating Serbia 3-1 in the best of five games final. They will start the defence of their title in Group H, alongside Portugal, Moldova, England, Iceland and Northern Ireland.