2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualification

Tournament details
Dates	2002 (qualifying round) 2003 (elite round)
Teams	51 (from 1 confederation)

The 2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifying competition was an under-17 football competition played in 2002 and 2003 to determine the 7 teams joining Portugal, who qualified automatically as hosts, in the 2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament.

The final tournament also acted as the UEFA qualifier for the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Finland, with two teams qualifying, Portugal and Spain, as finalists.

Format

The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds:

• Qualifying round: Apart from seven nations (Spain, England, Russia, Finland, Serbia and Montenegro, Polonia and Hungary), which received a bye to the elite round, 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 10 runners-up advanced to the elite round.
• Elite round: The 28 teams were drawn into seven 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 seven group winners qualified for the final tournament.

Elite round

Groups

All times were CET (UTC+1).

Qualified teams

The following 8 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Country	Qualified as	Previous appearances in tournament1 only U-17 era (since 2002)
Portugal	Hosts	1 (2002)
Spain	Group 1 winner	1 (2002)
Denmark	Group 2 winner	1 (2002)
Austria	Group 3 winner	0 (debut)
Israel	Group 4 winner	0 (debut)
Hungary	Group 5 winner	1 (2002)
England	Group 6 winner	1 (2002)
Italy	Group 7 winner	0 (debut)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italics indicate host.

External links

• Official website