All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Croatia 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 2016, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2017.^[5]

Qualified teams edit

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[6][7]

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).

Notes

Final draw edit

The final draw was held on 3 April 2017, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the Panorama Zagreb Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia.^[8][9] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. Hosts Croatia were assigned to position A1 in the draw, while the other teams were seeded according to their results in the qualification elite round, with the seven best elite round group winners (counting all elite round results) placed in Pot 1 and drawn to positions 1 and 2 in the groups, and the remaining eight teams (the eighth-best elite round group winner and the seven elite round group runners-up) placed in Pot 2 and drawn to positions 3 and 4 in the groups.^[10]

At first, it was announced that eight stadiums would host the competition, each of those being in Istria and Primorje. Later, that was changed.

Rijeka and Kostrena were the only hosts that were planned at first with new hosts being Varaždin, Zaprešić, Velika Gorica and two in Croatian capital Zagreb – in boroughs Sesvete and Lučko. The final would be played in Varaždin.

A total of 9 referees, 12 assistant referees and 3 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.^[11]

Each national team submitted a squad of 18 players.^[5]

The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 7 April 2017.^[12]

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 17.01 and 17.02):^[5]

1. Higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
2. Superior goal difference resulting from the group matches played among the teams in question;
3. Higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
4. If, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the group matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
5. Superior goal difference in all group matches;
6. Higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
7. If only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group stage, their rankings are determined by a penalty shoot-out (not used if more than two teams have the same number of points, or if their rankings are not relevant for qualification for the next stage).
8. 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);
9. Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
10. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).^[13]

Group A edit

Group B edit

Group C edit

Group D edit

In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time is played).^[5]

As part of a trial sanctioned by the IFAB to reduce the advantage of the team shooting first in a penalty shoot-out,^[14] a different sequence of taking penalties, known as "ABBA", that mirrors the serving sequence in a tennis tiebreak would be used if a penalty shoot-out was needed (team A kicks first, team B kicks second):^[15]

Original sequence

AB AB AB AB AB (sudden death starts) AB AB etc.

Trial sequence

AB BA AB BA AB (sudden death starts) BA AB etc.

Bracket edit

Quarter-finals edit

Winners qualified for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The two best losing quarter-finalists entered the FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off.

Ranking of losing quarter-finalists edit

To determine the two best losing quarter-finalists which enter the FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off, the losing quarter-finalists are ranked by the following criteria (Regulations Article 16.06):^[5]

1. Higher position in the group stage (i.e., group winners ahead of group runners-up);
2. Better results in the group stage (i.e., points, goal difference, goals scored);
3. Better results in the quarter-finals (i.e., points, goal difference, goals scored);
4. Lower disciplinary points in the group stage and quarter-finals combined;
5. Higher position in the coefficient ranking list used for the qualifying round draw;
6. Drawing of lots.

FIFA U-17 World Cup play-off edit

Winner qualified for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Semi-finals edit

Final edit

There were 99 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 3.09 goals per match.

9 goals

7 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: UEFA.com^[16]

Source: UEFA Technical Report^[18]

The following five teams from UEFA qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.^[19][20][21]

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

• Official website
• 2016/17 final tournament: Croatia, UEFA.com