The 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (33rd edition if the Under-16 era was also included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Bulgaria hosted the tournament.[3] The finals featured 16 teams for the first time since 2002, as the number of teams was increased from eight in the previous tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate in this competition.
The final tournament also acted as the UEFA qualifier for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, with six teams qualifying (the four semi-finalists and the two winners of play-off matches between the losing quarter-finalists).
Each match lasted 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes, with an interval of 15 minutes.
All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition and with the hosts Bulgaria qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament.[4] The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2014 and Elite round, which took place in spring 2015.[5]
Qualified teams
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.[6][7]
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).
The best seven runners-up among all eight elite round groups qualified for the final tournament.
Final draw
The final draw was held in Pomorie, Bulgaria on 2 April 2015, 14:00 EEST (UTC+3).[8][9] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Bulgaria were assigned to position A1 in the draw.
Map of the 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship finalist teams and their performances.
Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.
Tiebreakers
if two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[5]
Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still had an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 were reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure did not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 applied;
Superior goal difference in all group matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
If only two teams had the same number of points, and they were tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings were determined by a penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage).
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in the group matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
