2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification

2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	25 September – 31 October 2014 (qualifying round); 22 March – 16 April 2015 (elite round)
Teams	43 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	96
Goals scored	355 (3.7 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Signe Bruun (10 goals)

The 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-17 football competition played in 2014 and 2015 to determine the seven teams joining Iceland, who qualified automatically as hosts, in the 2015 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament.[1] A total of 43 UEFA member national teams entered the qualifying competition.

Each match lasted 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes, with an interval of 15 minutes.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:[2]

Qualifying round: Apart from Germany, France and Spain, which receive byes to the elite round as the three teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 40 teams were drawn into 10 groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 10 group winners, the 10 runners-up, and the third-placed team with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advanced to the elite round.
Elite round: The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams. Each group was played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The six group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the first and third-placed teams in their group qualified for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers

If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[2]

Higher number of points obtained in the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
Superior goal difference resulting from the mini-tournament matches played among the teams in question;
Higher number of goals scored in the mini-tournament 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 mini-tournament 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 mini-tournament matches;
Higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament 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 mini-tournament, 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 mini-tournament matches (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Drawing of lots.

To determine the best third-placed team from the qualifying round and the best runner-up from the elite round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied:[2]

Higher number of points;
Superior goal difference;
Higher number of goals scored;
Lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Drawing of lots.

Qualifying round

Draw

The draw for the qualifying round was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland on 20 November 2013 at 09:00 CET (UTC+1).[3][4]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[5]

2011 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2012 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)
2013 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition (qualifying round and elite round)

Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, and two teams from Pot C.

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany	13.333	1
France	11.333	2
Spain	10.667	3

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Denmark	9.167	4
Switzerland	8.333	5
Sweden	8.167	6
Poland	7.667	7
Belgium	7.333	8
Norway	7.333	9
Czech Republic	7.167	10
Republic of Ireland	6.333	11
Netherlands	6.167	12
England	6.000	13

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Finland	5.667	14
Russia	5.667	15
Scotland	5.333	16
Italy	5.167	17
Austria	5.000	18
Serbia	4.500	19
Hungary	4.333	20
Wales	4.000	21
Turkey	4.000	22
Slovenia	4.000	23

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Romania	3.333	24
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.333	25
Northern Ireland	3.167	26
Belarus	3.000	27
Greece	2.333	28
Ukraine	2.000	29
Montenegro	2.000	30
Bulgaria	1.333	31
Israel	1.333	32
Latvia	1.000	33
Faroe Islands	1.000	34
Moldova	1.000	35
Estonia	1.000	36
Lithuania	1.000	37
Azerbaijan	1.000	38
Slovakia	1.000	39
Croatia	0.667	40
Kazakhstan	0.333	41
Macedonia	0.000	42
Portugal	—	43

Notes

Iceland (Coeff: 1.000) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, and San Marino did not enter.

Groups

Times up to 25 October 2014 were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times were CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	3	0	18	1	+17	9	Elite round
2	Russia	3	2	1	9	5	+4	6	Elite round
3	Bulgaria (H)	3	1	2	2	6	−4	3
4	Moldova	3	0	3	1	18	−17	0

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Host.

26 October 2014