2025/26 Under-19 EURO qualifying round draw

The 2025/26 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round draw has set the groups that begin the road to the eight-team finals in Wales.

The draw was made by Bjorn Vassallo, chairman of the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee, and Aleksander Andresen, part of the Norway team in the 2024 finals, who received the Respect Fair Play trophy on behalf of the squad.

Matches in each one-venue mini-tournament will be played in principle in one of the following windows:
1–9 September 2025 or
6–14 October 2025 or
10–18 November 2025.

The hosts for each mini-tournament will be agreed after the draw.

The top two teams in each group as well as the best third-placed team will join top seeds Spain in the elite round in spring 2026, which will produce the seven nations joining Wales in the summer finals.

Aleksander Andresen (left), part of the Norway team in the 2024 finals, receives the UEFA Respect Fair Play award on behalf of his squad from Bjorn Vassallo, chairman of the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football CommitteeUEFA

How the draw worked

Entries and system

Fifty-four member associations will take part in in the competition. Fifty-two teams will enter the competition in the qualifying round and one, Spain, will join in the elite round.

The final tournament host association, Wales, qualifies automatically for the final tournament. Therefore, 52 teams were drawn into 13 groups of four teams.

Coefficient ranking system

The qualifying round coefficient rankings were established for the qualifying round draw on the basis of the associations’ results in the four most recently completed seasons. For the 2025/26 competitions, the qualifying round coefficient rankings were based on the associations' results in the 2018/19, 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons as the 2019/20 season was not completed and the 2020/21 season was cancelled.

See the draw procedure for full details and calculations.

Draw conditions

On the basis of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and the UEFA Emergency Panel, valid at the time of the draw, the following countries could not be drawn into the same group: Armenia and Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine, Kosovo and Serbia and Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The other prohibited team pairings could not happen due to the pot composition.

Draw procedure

The 52 associations were split into 4 pots of 13 teams, as follows:

Pot A:

• Associations ranked 2 to 14

Italy, France, Portugal, Norway, England, Israel, Ukraine, Czechia, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Türkiye, Romania, Serbia

Pot B:

• Associations ranked 15 to 27

Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Slovakia, Iceland, Croatia, Poland, Austria, Scotland, Hungary, Switzerland, Northern Ireland

Pot C:

• Associations ranked 28 to 40

Slovenia, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Latvia, Sweden, Armenia, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Belarus, Cyprus, Bulgaria

Pot D:

• Associations ranked 41 to 53

Azerbaijan, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Albania, Andorra, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Gibraltar

The teams were allocated to groups in ascending order. If clashes arose, the team drawn were 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.

The draw started with Pot A and ended with Pot D. Each pot was emptied before moving to the next pot.

First draw phase

• The teams in Pot A were drawn one after another and placed in the first position in Groups 1 to 13.

Second draw phase

• The teams in Pot B were drawn one after another and placed in the second position in Groups 1 to 13.

Third draw phase

• The teams in Pot C were drawn one after another and each one placed in the third position in one of the 13 groups.

Fourth draw phase

• The teams in Pot D were drawn one after another and each one placed in the fourth position in one of the 13 groups.