The 2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification is a men's under-19 national football team competition that will determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Wales in the 2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament.[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2007 are eligible to participate.
2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Dates
Qualifying round: September – November 2025 Elite round: Spring 2026
Russia was excluded from participating in the tournament due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Spain has received a bye to the Elite Round and will not participate in the qualifying round. Therefore, excluding hosts Wales, 52 teams entered this qualification competition, which consists of a qualifying round played in September–November 2025, followed by an elite round played in spring 2026.
The qualifying competition will consist of the following two rounds:
Qualifying Round: Apart from Spain, which receives a bye to the elite round as the team with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams will be drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group will be played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 13 group winners, 13 runners-up, and the best third-placed team will advance to the elite round.
Elite Round: The 28 teams will be drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners will qualify for the final tournament.
In the qualifying and elite round, teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 14.01 and 14.02):[2]
Goals scored in head to head matches among tied teams
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams
Goal difference in all group matches
Goals scored in all group matches
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams have the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and are tied after applying all criteria above (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)
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for 2 yellow cards in one match = 3 points)
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw
To determine the best third-placed team from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place are discarded. The following criteria are applied (Regulations Articles 15.01 and 15.02):[2]
Points
Goal difference
Goals scored
Disciplinary points (total 3 matches)
UEFA coefficient ranking for the qualifying round draw
Each group contains one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. On the basis of decisions taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and the UEFA Emergency Panel, valid at the time of the draw, the following countries cannot be drawn into the same group: Armenia and Azerbaijan, Belarus and Ukraine, Kosovo and Serbia and Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
