The 2023 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship qualifying competition was a women's under-19 football competition that determined the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Belgium in the 2023 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship final tournament.[1]
52 teams, including hosts Belgium, entered the qualifying competition.[1] Players born on or after 1 January 2004 were eligible to participate.
Gibraltar entered a women's national team in any UEFA competition for the first time ever.[2]
Format
Last season, UEFA implemented a new format for the women's U17 and U19 Euros, based on a league-style qualifying format.
The teams were divided in two leagues: League A (28 teams) and League B (24 teams).
Each league played two rounds:
Round 1: In each league, groups of four teams played mini-tournaments. The winners of each mini-tournament in league B and the best runner-up were promoted and the last-placed teams in league A mini-tournaments were relegated.
Round 2: The seven winners of League A qualified for the final tournament. The six winners of mini-tournaments in league B and the best runner-up were promoted and the last-placed teams in league A were relegated for Round 1 of the next edition of the tournament.
Tiebreakers
In Round 1 and Round 2, teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Articles 19.01 and 19.02):[3]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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 had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (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);
Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
Position in the applicable ranking:
for teams in round 1, position in 2021–22 round 2 league rankings;
for teams in round 2, position in the round 1 league ranking.
To determine the five best third-placed teams from the qualifying round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded. The following criteria were applied (Regulations Article 15.01):[3]
Points;
Goal difference;
Goals scored;
Disciplinary points;
Position in the applicable ranking:
for teams in round 1, position in the coefficient rankings;
for teams in round 2, position in the round 1 league ranking.
Round 1
Draw
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 31 May 2022, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[2]
The teams were seeded according to their final group standings of the 2021–22 competition (Regulations Article 13.01).[3]
Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. For political reasons, Armenia and Azerbaijan and Bosnia & Herzegovina and Kosovo would not be drawn in the same group.[2]
To determine the 2021–22 Round 2 league rankings, the following criteria was followed:
higher position in the following classification:
League A Round 2 group winners
League A Round 2 group runners-up
League A Round 2 third-placed teams
Teams promoted from League B
Teams relegated from League A
League B Round 2 runners-up
League B Round 2 third-placed teams
League B Round 2 fourth-placed teams
higher number of points in all mini-tournament matches;
superior goal difference in all mini-tournament matches;
higher number of goals scored in all mini-tournament matches;
lower disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
higher position in the 2021–22 round 1 league rankings.
28 teams advanced to this round League A: 21 transferred from Round 1 and seven promoted from Round 2. The teams were divided in seven four-group teams. The seven group champions joined Belgium in the 2023 finals.
League A
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).