Under 20 Elite League

Under-20 Elite League
Organising bodySelf-governing tournament
Founded2017; 7 years ago (2017)
RegionEurope
Number of teams8
Current champions Italy
Most successful team(s) Italy
(3 titles)
2024–25 Under 20 Elite League

The Under 20 Elite League, also known as the European Elite League, is an under-20 (U20) association football tournament founded in 2017.

History

Competed in by national European U20 teams, it is the successor to the Under-20 Four Nations Tournament.[1][2][3]

The initial eight participating teams were Germany, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland. The 2019-2020 edition marked the first instance where the tournament was not completed, and the subsequent edition was canceled due to the pandemic emergency.

Starting from the 2021-2022 edition, Norway and Romania replaced the Netherlands and Switzerland. Additionally, in the 2021-2022 edition, the trophy was awarded without completing all matches due to the inability to reschedule the match between England and Norway. Subsequent editions also faced disruptions, so the title is being awarded to the team leading the standings.

Italy national under-20 football team won the tournament a record three times (2021–22, 2022–23, 2023–24).

Format

The Under 20 Elite League is a self-governing tournament made up of eight participating federations. The tournament follows a round-robin format with only one leg. Unlike the previous tournament's format, there are no return matches, resulting in a total of seven matches for each national team.

Results

Edition Winners Ref.
2017–18  Germany [2]
2018–19  Netherlands [3]
2019–20 suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic
2020–21 not played due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021–22  Italy[a] [4]
2022–23  Italy [5]
2023–24  Italy [6]

Performances by countries

Team Winners Runners-up Third place Fourth place
 Italy 3 (2022, 2023, 2024) 1 (2018)
 Germany 1 (2018) 2 (2023, 2024) 2 (2019, 2022)
 Netherlands 1 (2019)
 England 2 (2018, 2022) 2 (2019, 2024)
 Portugal 1 (2019) 1 (2024) 1 (2022)
 Czech Republic 2 (2018, 2023)
 Poland 1 (2023)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The seventh and final match between England and Norway, which could have given the title to the English team, was not played.

References

  1. ^ "Elite League Nieuwe Uitdaging Voor Oranje Onder 20". KNVB (in Dutch). KNVB Media. 2017.
  2. ^ a b SFV staff (30 January 2017). "Neue Turnierform: Under 20 Elite League 2017/2018" (in German). Schweizerischen Fussballverbandes.
  3. ^ a b Football Association (UK) staff (28 August 2018). "England U20s to Face Italy at AFC Fylde and Germany in Colchester". The FA.
  4. ^ "Primavera di successi per le Giovanili Azzurre. Gravina: "Risultati straordinari frutto del lavoro del Club Italia"". FIGC (in Italian). 30 March 2022.
  5. ^ "Contro Norvegia e Germania le ultime due gare del Torneo Otto Nazioni, poi il Mondiale: i 23 convocati di Nunziata". FIGC (in Italian). 17 March 2023.
  6. ^ "A goalless draw in Romania is enough: Italy secures the Elite League title for the third consecutive year". FIGC. 21 March 2024.
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