The 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-17 Euro 2017) was the 16th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (35th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-17 national teams of Europe. Croatia, which were selected by UEFA on 26 January 2015, hosted the tournament.
A total of 16 teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2000 eligible to participate. Each match had a duration of 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes with a 15-minute half-time.
Same as previous editions held in odd-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The top five teams of the tournament qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in India as the UEFA representatives. This was decreased from the previous six teams, as FIFA decided to give one of the slots originally reserved for UEFA to the Oceania Football Confederation starting from 2017.
Spain won their third title by beating England 4–1 on penalties in the final after a 2–2 draw, and both teams were joined by Germany, Turkey, France as UEFA qualifiers for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Portugal were the defending champions, but failed to qualify.
Qualification
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. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2016, and Elite round, which took place in spring 2017.
Qualified teams
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).
Notes
Final draw
The final draw was held on 3 April 2017, 18:00 CEST (UTC+2), at the Panorama Zagreb Hotel in Zagreb, Croatia. 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.
Venues
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.
Match officials
A total of 9 referees, 12 assistant referees and 3 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.
Referees
Dominik Ouschan
Nicolas Laforge
Fran Jović
Dimitrios Massias
Jens Maae
Anastasios Papapetrou
Donatas Rumšas
Fábio Veríssimo
Mohammed Al-Hakim
Assistant referees
Atom Sevgulyan
Radek Kotik
Mika Lamppu
Idan Yarkoni
Samat Tergeussizov
Jevgeņijs Morozovs
Goce Petreski
Paul Robinson
Manuel Fernandes
Mircea Grigoriu
Aleksei Vorontsov
Ian Bird
Fourth officials
Tihomir Pejin
Duje Strukan
Mario Zebec
Squads
Each national team submitted a squad of 18 players.
Group stage
The final tournament schedule was confirmed on 7 April 2017.
The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.