With the debut of Bosnia and Herzegovina a new record of 42 participating nations was set.[1] The 42 UEFA members with the exception of Germany and Netherlands, which received a bye, were divided into 10 groups of four teams, with each group being contested as a mini-tournament, hosted by one of the group's teams. After all matches were played, the 10 group winners and the four best runners-up advanced to the second round.
The draw was made on 16 November 2010.[2] Matches were played from 29 September 2011 to 22 October 2011.
First round
Seeding
The seedings were assigned according to the Under-17 coefficient ranking. There were three pots, with the ten highest ranked teams in Pot A, the next ten in Pot B and the rest in Pot C.[1]
Pot A
France, Spain, Norway, Sweden, England, Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Scotland
To determine the four best runners-up from the first qualifying round, only the results against the winners and third-placed teams in each group were taken into account.
The following criteria are applied to determine the rankings:
higher number of points obtained in these matches
superior goal difference from these matches
higher number of goals scored in these matches
fair play conduct of the teams in all group matches in the first qualifying round
The ten group winners and the four best runners-up joined Germany and the Netherlands in the second round. There were four groups of four teams each. The four group winners advanced to the final round. The draw was held on 15 November 2011.[3]
The second round was played from 19 March 2012 to 1 May 2012.
Hosts of each mini-tournament are marked in italics.