Malta, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan picked for U17s
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
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Malta will stage the last eight-team Under-17 final tournament in 2014, with the first 16-nation events to be held in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan over the following two seasons.
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Malta, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan have been selected to stage the UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournaments of 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively by the UEFA Executive Committee at its meeting in Istanbul.
The 2014 showpiece in Malta will be the last to contain eight teams, following those of Slovenia this year and Slovakia in 2013, and will be the first UEFA final tournament hosted by the island nation. From 2015, the U17 finals will return to the 16-team format of both the competition's inaugural 2002 edition and the previous U16 Championship, with Bulgaria and Azerbaijan given the honour of organising the first two expanded events.