2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification

2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates	Qualifying round:; 28 September – 28 October 2015; Elite round:; 3–29 March 2016
Teams	46 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	102
Goals scored	449 (4.4 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Alessia Russo; Georgia Stanway; Lorena Navarro; (9 goals each)

The 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship qualification' was a women's under-17 football competition organised by UEFA to determine the seven national teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Belarus in the 2016 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship final tournament.[1]

A total of 46 national teams, with Andorra entering a UEFA women's competition for the first time, entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and March 2016.[2] Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:[3]

Qualifying round: Apart from Germany and France, which received byes to the elite round as the two teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 44 teams were drawn into 11 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 11 group winners and the 11 runners-up 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

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). 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:[3]

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 runner-up from the elite round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied:[3]

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 on 19 November 2014, 08:40 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[4][5]

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:[6][7]

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)
2014 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. For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan (due to the disputed status of Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as Russia and Ukraine (due to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine), could not be drawn in the same group.[2]

Bye to elite round
Team	Coeff	Rank
Germany	13.666	1
France	12.500	2

Pot A
Team	Coeff	Rank
Spain	12.333	3
Sweden	8.833	4
Norway	8.667	5
Denmark	8.000	6
Switzerland	7.833	7
Austria	7.667	8
Belgium	7.333	9
Poland	7.333	10
Italy	7.167	11
Republic of Ireland	6.833	12
Iceland	6.833	13

Pot B
Team	Coeff	Rank
Czech Republic	6.667	14
Russia	6.667	15
Netherlands	6.333	16
England	6.167	17
Finland	5.667	18
Scotland	5.667	19
Hungary	5.500	20
Serbia	4.833	21
Turkey	4.000	22
Northern Ireland	3.667	23
Greece	3.667	24

Pot C
Team	Coeff	Rank
Romania	3.500	25
Bosnia and Herzegovina	3.333	26
Slovenia	3.000	27
Wales	3.000	28
Portugal	3.000	29
Bulgaria	2.333	30
Ukraine	2.333	31
Azerbaijan	2.000	32
Montenegro	2.000	33
Slovakia	1.667	34
Croatia	1.333	35
Moldova	1.333	36
Latvia	1.333	37
Israel	1.000	38
Faroe Islands	1.000	39
Estonia	0.000	40
Lithuania	0.000	41
Macedonia	0.000	42
Kazakhstan	0.000	43
Georgia	0.000	44
Andorra	—	45
Armenia	—	46

Notes

Belarus (Coeff: 3.500) qualified automatically for the final tournament as hosts.
Albania, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, and San Marino did not enter.

Groups

Times up to 24 October 2015 were CEST (UTC+2), thereafter times were CET (UTC+1).

Group 1

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Republic of Ireland	3	3	0	13	0	+13	9	Elite round
2	Ukraine	3	2	1	12	3	+9	6	Elite round
3	Turkey (H)	3	1	2	5	4	+1	3
4	Andorra	3	0	3	0	23	−23	0

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

15 October 2015