2021/22 Women's U17 Round 1 draw

The draw for Round 1 of the new UEFA Nations League-style UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship has been made with a record 49 teams involved.

A new format replaces the old qualifying and elite rounds, still featuring one-venue mini-tournaments but now including two leagues with promotion and relegation and leading to the eight-team 2022 finals in Bosnia and Herzegovina (who will compete in the two rounds before automatically progressing to the final tournament). The competition returns after the 2019/20 and 2020/21 editions were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• HOW THE NEW SYSTEM WORKS

Round 1 draw

League A

Group A1: Norway, Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Bulgaria

Group A2: Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Scotland

Group A3: Italy, France, Sweden, Wales

Group A4: Germany (holders), Finland, Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina (finals hosts)

Group A5: England, Poland, Belgium, Russia

Group A6: Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Greece

Group A7: Spain, Serbia, Iceland, Northern Ireland

LEAGUE B

Group B1: Belarus, Georgia, Kosovo, Luxembourg

Group B2: Lithuania, Croatia, Armenia, Kazakhstan

Group B3: Ukraine, Estonia, Moldova, North Macedonia

Group B4: Slovakia, Israel, Faroe Islands

Group B5: Turkey, Romania, Latvia

Group B6: Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Albania

Group dates/hosts tbc: matches between 1 August and 14 November

Competition system

Round 1 will decide which teams are promoted and relegated ahead of Round 2 in spring 2022.

Promotion

• From League B to A: the six group winners plus best runner-up.

Relegation

• From League A to B: the seven teams ranked fourth in their groups.

The Round 2 draw will be held in late 2021, with the seven League A group winners in the spring joining Bosnia and Herzegovina in the finals from 3 to 15 May 2022. There will also be promotion and relegation between Leagues A and B ahead of 2022/23 Round 1. Seedings for the Round 2 draw will be determined by the positions in which each team finishes in Round 1.

Draw procedure

In Round 1, the 49 entrants (including finals hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina, plus debutants Kosovo and – in their first women's youth competition – Luxembourg) were split into League A (28 teams) and League B (21 teams) based on the Women's U17 coefficient rankings determined by performances in the competition from 2015/16–2018/19. League A consists of seven groups of four teams; League B entails three groups of four teams and three groups of three teams.

Within each league, teams were allocated to pots (League A – seven in each of Pots 1 to 4; League B – six in Pots 5 and 6, nine in Pot 7). The seven groups in League A contain one team from each of the four pots; in League C, three groups contain one team from each of Pots 5 and 6 plus two from Pot 7 and the other three groups comprise one team from each pot.

As decided by the UEFA Executive Committee and the UEFA Emergency Panel, the following countries cannot be drawn into the same group: Armenia and Azerbaijan

Hosts will be appointed after the draw for each mini-tournament, to be played between 1 August and 14 November.

Round 1 draw: Leagues and seeding pots

League A

Pot 1: Germany (holders), Spain, England, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy

Pot 2: France, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Austria, Finland, Czech Republic, Serbia

Pot 3: Portugal, Belgium, Iceland, Sweden, Hungary, Switzerland, Slovenia

Pot 4: Russia, Scotland, Greece, Bulgaria, Wales, Bosnia and Herzegovina (finals hosts), Northern Ireland

League B

Pot 5: Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Slovakia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania

Pot 6: Romania, Croatia, Georgia, Israel, Estonia, Montenegro

Pot 7: Faroe Islands, Latvia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia, Albania, Armenia, Kosovo, Luxembourg