2023/24 Under-17 EURO elite round draw
Thursday, December 7, 2023
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The 32 contenders have been drawn into eight groups of four to decide Cyprus's 15 finals opponents.
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The UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round draw split 32 teams into eight groups of four to be played as single-venue mini-tournaments in March 2024. They will compete for 15 spots alongside hosts Cyprus in the finals from 20 May to 5 June.
The draw was made by Lennon Miller, part of last season's Scotland squad, receiving the Respect Fair Play trophy on his team's behalf.
Elite round draw
Group 1 (20–26 March): England (hosts), France, Hungary, Northern Ireland
Group 2 (20–26 March): Wales, Bulgaria, Sweden, Romania (hosts)
Group 3 (20–26 March): Netherlands, Belgium, Finland (hosts), Italy
Group 4 (6–12 March): Greece (hosts), Switzerland, Slovakia, Ukraine
Group 5 (20–26 March): Portugal (hosts), Germany (holders), Croatia, Republic of Ireland
Group 6 (20–26 March): Türkiye, Serbia, Georgia (hosts), Denmark
Group 7 (20–26 March): Spain, Austria (hosts), Slovenia, Norway
Group 8 (20–26 March): Poland, Czechia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina (hosts)
The eight elite round group winners and seven runners-up with the best records join hosts Cyprus in the final tournament.
The top-seeded Netherlands, who enter directly in this round, are joined by the 31 teams that came through the qualifying round that ended on 21 November.
The eight elite round group winners and seven runners-up with the best records will qualify for the final tournament.
Team guide
- Germany are the defending champions, after beating France last June in Hungary to win their second U17 title since the switch to the current classification in 2001/02. Poland and Spain were beaten semi-finalists, while England, Republic of Ireland, Serbia and Switzerland also reached the quarter-finals.
- Other past U17 winners in the draw other than Germany are Netherlands (4), France (3), Spain (3), England (1), Portugal (2), Switzerland (1), Türkiye (1).
- England, Netherlands and Spain are aiming to reach a record 16th final tournament.
Draw procedure
The 32 associations participating in the elite round were split into four pots based on their results in the qualifying round. .
Pot A: Netherlands, Spain, England, Portugal, Wales, Poland, Türkiye, Greece
Pot B: Serbia, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Czechia, Belgium
Pot C: Hungary, Sweden, Belarus, Croatia, Georgia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland
Pot D: Romania, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Ireland
The draw started with Pot A and ended with Pot D. Each pot was emptied before moving to the next pot.
The teams in Pot A were drawn one after another and placed in the first position in Groups 1 to 8.
The teams in Pot B were drawn one after another and each one placed in the second position in one of the eight groups, and the procedure repeated for Pots C (third position) and Pot D (fourth position).
On the basis of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and the UEFA Emergency Panel, valid at the time of the draws, the following countries could not be drawn into the same group: Belarus and Ukraine.
The teams were allocated to groups in ascending order in such a way as to ensure that no winners and runners-up from the same qualifying group meet each other in the elite round. If clashes arose, the team drawn would be moved to the next available group. The draw continued by first filling the slot left vacant. If clashes arose in the last three or four groups, the teams were allocated to groups appropriately. There was no protection with regard to teams that finished third in their qualifying group.