UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship

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The European Under-21 Football Championship is football competition organised by the sport's European governing body, UEFA. It is held every two years. The competition has existed in its current form since 1978. It was preceded by the Under 23 Challenge Cup which ran from 1967 to 1970. A true championship was formed starting in 1972.

The age limit was reduced to 21 for the 1978 championship and it has remained so since. To be eligible for the campaign ending in 2006, players needed to be born in or after 1983. Many were actually 23 years old at the finals tournament, but when the qualification process began (late 2004) all players would have been 21 or under.

There is no Under-21 World Cup; instead, FIFA hold the Under-20 World Cup - formerly the FIFA World Youth Championship every two years. The European Under-21 teams have two European Championships instead of one European Championship and a World Cup. Under-21 matches are typically played on the day before senior internationals and where possible, the same qualifying groups and fixtures were played out. This will change for the 2006-7 Championship.

Contents 1 Competition structure 1.1 Group A 1.2 Group B 1.3 Group C 1.4 Group D 1.5 Group E 1.6 Group F 1.7 Group G 1.8 Group H 2 Winners 2.1 Under-23 Challenge Cup winners 2.2 Under-23 Champions 2.3 Under-21 Champions and runners-up 3 External links 4 See also

[edit] Competition structure

Up to and including the 1992 competition, all entrants were divided into eight qualification groups, the eight winners of which formed the quarter-finals lineup. The remaining fixtures were played out on a two-legged, home and away basis to determine the eventual winner.

For the 1994 competition, one of the semi-finalists, France, was chosen as a host for the (single-legged) semi-finals, 3rd place playoff and final. Similarly, Spain was chosen to host the last four matches in 1996.

For 1998, nine qualification groups were used, as participation had reached 46, nearly double the 24 entrants in 1976. The top seven group winners qualified automatically for the finals, whilst the eighth- and ninth-best qualifiers, Greece and England, played-off for the final spot. The remaining matches, from the quarter-finals onward, were held in Romania, one of the eight qualifiers.

The 2000 competition also had nine groups, but the 9 winners and 7 runners-up went into a two-legged playoff to decide the eight qualifiers. From those, Slovakia was chosen as host. For the first time, the familiar finals group stage was employed, with the two winners contesting a final, and two runners-up contesting the 3rd-place playoff. The structure in 2002 was identical, except for the introduction of a semi-finals round after the finals group stage. Switzerland hosted the 2002 finals.

In 2004, ten qualification groups were used, with the six best runners-up going into the playoff. Germany was host that year. For 2006, the top two teams of eight large qualification groups provided the 16 teams for the playoffs, held in November 2005. Portugal hosted the finals.

Then followed the switch to odd years. The change was made because the senior teams of many nations often chose to promote players from their under-21s team as their own qualification campaign intensifies. Staggering the tournaments will allow players more time to develop in the under-21 team rather than get promoted too early and end up becoming reserves for the seniors.

The 2007 competition actually began before the 2006 finals, with a qualification round to eliminate eight of the lowest-ranked nations. For the first time a host (Netherlands) had been chosen ahead of the qualification section. As hosts, Netherlands qualify automatically. Coincidentally, the Dutch team won the 2006 competition - the holders would normally have to go through the qualification stage. The other nations all go into 14 three-team groups and will play one match at home and one away. The winners of the 14 groups then play-off to decide the seven qualifiers alongside the hosts.

World U21 Championships Italy 2001 [edit] Group A Main article: World U21 Championship Group A Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Italy 10 9 9 0 0 45 1 Nigeria 7 9 8 0 1 11 3 Chile 6 9 6 1 2 17 11 Denmark 6 9 6 1 2 17 6 Russia 5 9 4 1 4 11 13 Morocco 4 9 4 1 4 9 16 Estonia 3 9 2 1 6 8 16 Wales 2 9 2 1 6 7 15 Faroe Islands 1 9 1 0 8 3 23 Andorra 0 9 0 0 9 2 27 [edit] Group B Main article: World U21 Championship Group B Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA France 10 8 8 0 0 42 3 USA 9 8 7 0 1 16 6 Bulgaria 6 8 5 1 2 10 4 Tunisia 6 8 5 1 2 10 5 Slovakia 5 8 3 1 4 9 11 Northern Ireland 4 8 3 0 5 8 13 Israel 3 8 2 0 6 7 19 Belarus 2 8 1 0 7 6 23 Cyprus 1 8 0 1 7 3 26 [edit] Group C Main article: World U21 Championship Group C Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Mexico 10 8 8 0 0 41 0 Sweden 9 8 7 0 1 14 3 Greece 6 8 6 0 2 19 6 Colombia 6 8 4 1 3 9 9 Egypt 5 8 3 1 4 11 13 India 4 8 3 1 4 5 14 Latvia 3 8 2 1 5 5 16 Iceland 2 8 1 0 7 8 22 Moldova 1 8 0 0 8 2 25 [edit] Group D Main article: World U21 Championship Group D Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Spain 10 8 8 0 0 45 0 Switzerland 9 8 7 0 1 19 8 Norway 6 8 5 1 2 18 8 Japan 6 8 5 1 2 10 9 Jamaica 5 8 4 0 4 7 11 Saudi Arabia 4 8 3 0 5 10 8 FYR Macedonia 3 8 2 0 6 5 20 Georgia 2 8 1 0 7 5 23 Luxembourg 1 8 0 0 8 3 19 [edit] Group E Main article: World U21 Championship Group E Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Argentina 10 8 7 1 0 43 4 Netherlands 9 8 7 1 0 19 7 Cameroon 6 8 5 1 2 14 9 Korea Republic 6 8 5 1 2 11 7 Romania 5 8 4 0 4 9 10 South Africa 4 8 3 0 5 5 12 Iran 3 8 2 0 6 5 15 Bosnia & Herzegovina 2 8 1 0 7 5 19 Azerbaijan 1 8 0 0 8 3 31 [edit] Group F Main article: World U21 Championship Group F Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA England 10 8 8 0 0 46 1 Hungary 9 8 7 0 1 12 7 Croatia 6 8 5 1 2 19 8 Czech Republic 6 8 4 2 2 9 8 Belgium 5 8 4 0 4 10 11 Finland 4 8 3 0 5 5 12 Canada 3 8 2 1 5 5 17 Albania 2 8 1 0 7 3 20 Liechtenstein 1 8 0 0 8 2 27 [edit] Group G Main article: World U21 Championship Group G Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Brazil 10 8 8 0 0 36 3 Slovenia 9 8 7 0 1 10 4 Turkey 6 8 5 1 2 12 7 Yugoslavia 6 8 5 1 2 12 8 Australia 5 8 4 0 4 10 7 Austria 4 8 3 0 5 7 12 Scotland 3 8 2 0 6 4 8 Lithuania 2 8 1 0 7 3 18 Malta 1 8 0 0 8 3 29 [edit] Group H Main article: World U21 Championship Group H Team Pts Pld W D L GF GA Germany 10 8 7 1 0 43 5 Portugal 9 8 7 1 0 23 6 Poland 6 8 5 1 2 12 8 Paraguay 6 8 5 1 2 12 7 Ukraine 5 8 4 0 4 11 9 Republic of Ireland 4 8 3 0 5 7 15 New Zealand 3 8 2 0 6 6 16 Armenia 2 8 1 0 7 5 25 San Marino 1 8 0 0 8 3 31 [edit] Winners [edit] Under-23 Challenge Cup winners This was competed for on a basis similar to a boxing title belt. The holders played a randomly chosen opponent for the championship. This format was soon dropped in favour of one more familiar to the sport of football. Date Winners Runners-up Venue June 1967 Bulgaria East Germany Stara Zagora, Bulgaria September 1967 Bulgaria Finland Burgas, Bulgaria November 1967 Bulgaria Czechoslovakia Pleven Bulgaria April 1968 Bulgaria Netherlands Sofia, Bulgaria October 1968 Yugoslavia Bulgaria Rousse, Bulgaria June 1969 Yugoslavia Spain Novi Sad, Yugoslavia November 1969 Yugoslavia Sweden Zrenjanin, Yugoslavia March 1970 Yugoslavia Greece Athens, Greece [edit] Under-23 Champions Held only three times before it was relabelled by UEFA. Competition Winners Runners-up 1970-1972 Czechoslovakia USSR 1972-1974 Hungary East Germany 1974-1976 USSR Hungary [edit] Under-21 Champions and runners-up Competition Winners Runners-up 1976-1978 Yugoslavia East Germany 1978-1980 USSR East Germany 1980-1982 England West Germany 1982-1984 England Spain 1984-1986 Spain Italy 1986-1988 France Greece 1988-1990 USSR Yugoslavia 1990-1992 Italy Sweden A host nation was chosen for a finals competition for the 1994 finals onwards. Competition Winners Runners-up Hosts 1992-1994 Italy Portugal France 1994-1996 Italy Spain Spain 1996-1998 Spain Greece Romania 1998-2000 Italy Czech Republic Slovakia 2000-2002 Czech Republic France   Switzerland 2002-2004 Italy  Serbia & Montenegro Germany 2004-2006 Netherlands Ukraine Portugal 2006-2007 Netherlands 2007-2009 Sweden [edit] External links UEFA European U-21 Championship at uefa.com [edit] See also UEFA UEFA European Football Championship UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship National under-21 football teams of Europe (UEFA) v • d • e Albania | Andorra | Armenia | Austria | Azerbaijan | Belarus | Belgium | Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria | Croatia | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | England | Estonia | Faroe Islands  Finland | France | Georgia | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Iceland | Republic of Ireland | Israel  Italy | Kazakhstan | Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania | Luxembourg | FYR of Macedonia  Malta | Moldova | Montenegro | Netherlands | Northern Ireland | Norway | Poland | Portugal  Romania | Russia | San Marino | Scotland | Serbia | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden  Switzerland | Turkey | Ukraine | Wales   Former nations: Czechoslovakia | East Germany | USSR | Yugoslavia European Under-21 Championship v • d • e 1976-1978 | 1978-1980 | 1980-1982 | 1982-1984 | 1984-1986 | 1986-1988 | 1988-1990 1990-1992 | 1992-1994 France | 1994-1996 Spain | 1996-1998 Romania | 1998-2000 Slovakia 2000-2002 Switzerland | 2002-2004 Germany | 2004-2006 Portugal | 2006-2007 Netherlands 2007-2009 Sweden