2023 U17 EURO finals draw

The UEFA European Under-17 Championship finals draw at Hotel Ensana Thermal Margitsziget, Budapest, has put holders France in a group with Scotland, Germany and Portugal.

Made by Balázs Dzsudzsák, Hungary's most-capped player and tournament ambassador, the draw split the 16 contenders including hosts Hungary into four groups of four teams. The top two in each group will advance to the knockout phase.

Hosts Hungary are up against finals debutants Wales, Poland and the Republic of Ireland in the group stage running from 17 to 24 May, with the quarter-finals on 27 May, semis on 30 May and final on 2 June. Serbia, Spain, Italy and Slovenia are in a section together, as are Croatia, the Netherlands, Switzerland and England. The fixtures will be confirmed in due course.

The finals will also act as UEFA's qualifier for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup from 10 November to 2 December. The five spots will be filled by the four semi-finalists, plus the winners of a play-off between the two beaten quarter-finalists with the best group stage record.

Draw guide

• France beat Netherlands in the 2022 final to win their third U17 title.
• France beat Portugal on penalties in the semi-finals and Germany on spot kicks in the last eight.
• Other former U17 champions (since 2001/02) into the finals are Netherlands (4 titles), Spain (3), England (2), Portugal (2), Germany (1) and Switzerland (1).
• England, Netherlands and Spain have qualified for a record 15th time since the switch to U17 classification
• Wales make a U17 finals debut, the 41st different UEFA nation to take part.
• Spain and Serbia drew 1-1 in last season's group stage (the fourth time they had met in a U17 final. tournament, with Spain having won two and the other game also drawn).
• Spain and Italy are in the same group for the sixth time at a U17 EURO: Spain have four wins but Italy were triumphant most recently in 2019.
• Portugal beat Scotland 5-1 in last season's group stage.
• France defeated Germany 4-1 in the 2015 final.
• Croatia, Netherlands and Switzerland were all in the same group in the 2005 finals: Croatia and Netherlands went through.
• Netherlands beat England 1-0 in this season's elite roud in Katwijk. The two teams have met ten times in final tournaments with three wins each in regular time (England also won the 2014 final on penalties, the same method by which Netherlands beat the 2018 hosts in the semis).

How the draw worked

The hosts – Hungary – were seeded as the first team in Group A (A1). The other 15 participating teams were split into two pots and drawn into four groups of four teams (Groups A to D).

• Pot 1: the seven best elite round group winners (7 teams).

• Pot 2: the remaining elite round group winner and the seven best runners-up (8 teams).

• The draw started with Pot 2 from where the teams were drawn to fill position four in each group.

• The order of the draw was as follows:

- One ball was drawn from Pot 2 and the team assigned to position four in Group A; a second ball was drawn and the team assigned to position four in Group B; and so on until Group D.

- The same procedure applied for position three in each group with the four remaining balls in Pot 2, starting with Group A and ending with Group D.

- Once Pot 2 was empty, the draw continued with Pot 1, using the same procedure as with Pot 2 to fill position two in each group, then position one in Groups B, C and D to complete the draw.