2023/24 Under-19 EURO elite round draw

The UEFA European Under-19 Championship elite round draw set seven groups for the single-venue mini-tournaments to be played from 20 to 26 March.

The draw was made by Syver Aas, part of last season's Norway squad, receiving the Respect Fair Play trophy on his team's behalf.

In the elite round, the 27 teams that emerged from the qualifying round join top seeds Portugal, who enter at this stage.

The elite round group winners will join hosts Northern Ireland in the finals from 15 to 28 July, which also act as UEFA's qualifier for the 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Syver Aas, part of last season's Norway squad, receiving the Respect Fair Play trophy on his team's behalf before helping to make the drawUEFA

Team guide

• Italy are the defending champions, after beating Portugal last July in Malta to win their second U19 title since the switch to the current classification in 2001/02. Norway and Spain were beaten semi-finalists, while among the elite round contenders this time around, Greece also qualified.
• Other past winners in the draw other than Italy are Spain (8 from a record 13 qualifications), France (3), Germany (2), Portugal (1), Serbia (1) and Ukraine (1).
• Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Latvia, Montenegro and North Macedonia are aiming to reach the U19 finals for the first time.

Draw procedure

The 28 associations participating in the elite round were split into four pots based on their results in the qualifying round. .

Pot A: Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Türkiye, Switzerland

Pot B: Israel, Germany, Denmark, Czechia, Belgium, Austria, Ukraine

Pot C: Kosovo, Croatia, North Macedonia, France, Serbia, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Pot D: Romania, Slovenia, Italy, Montenegro, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece

The draw started with Pot A and end 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 7.

The teams in Pot B were drawn one after another and each one placed in the second position in one of the seven 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 Greece, who went through as the best third-place finisher in the qualifying round.