2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-21 Euro 2021) will be the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship (26th edition if the Under-23 era is also included), the biennial international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-21 national teams of Europe. The tournament will be co-hosted by Hungary and Slovenia and was scheduled to take place from 9 to 26 June 2021.[1] However, the tournament was rescheduled following the postponement of UEFA Euro 2020 to June/July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[2] with the new dates to be decided initially on 27 May 2020,[3] but then postponed to 17 June 2020,[4] where the UEFA Executive Committee meeting discussed the calendar and format of the tournament.[5] On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced the tournament would be played in two stages; the group stage, which would take place from 24 to 31 March 2021, and the knockout stage, which would take place from 31 May to 6 June 2021.[6]

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship
2021-es U21-es labdarúgó-Európa-bajnokság
(in Hungarian)
Evropsko prvenstvo v nogometu do 21 let 2021
(in Slovene)
Tournament details
Host countriesHungary
Slovenia
Dates24–31 March 2021 (group stage)
31 May – 6 June 2021 (knockout stage)
Teams16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)7 (in 7 host cities)

Initially, 12 teams were to play in the tournament, however on 6 February 2019, UEFA's Executive Committee increased this number to 16.[7] Only players born on or after 1 January 1998 are eligible to participate.[8]

Spain are the defending champions.

Host selection

The following associations indicated their interests to bid for the tournament:

Hungary and Slovenia were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 3 December 2018.[1][11]

Qualification
Main article: 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

All 55 UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the co-hosts Hungary and Slovenia qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams will compete in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 14 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:[8]

  • Qualifying group stage: The 53 teams are drawn into nine groups: eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. Each group is played in home-and-away round-robin format. The nine group winners and the best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualify directly for the final tournament, while the remaining eight runners-up advance to the play-offs.
  • Play-offs: The eight teams are drawn into four ties to play home-and-away two-legged matches to determine the last four qualified teams.

The draw for the qualifying group stage will be held on 11 December 2018.[12] The qualifying group stage will take place from March 2019 to October 2020, while the play-offs will take place in November 2020.[8]

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-21 era (since 1978).

Team Method of qualification Date of qualification Appearance Last appearance Previous best performance
 HungaryCo-hosts3 December 20185th1996 (quarter-finals)Semi-finals (1986)
 SloveniaCo-hosts3 December 20181st—Debut

Final draw

The final draw will be held in late 2020. The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups of four teams. The two hosts will be assigned to positions A1 and B1 in the draw, while the other teams will be seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:

Venues

The Hungarian Football Federation proposed the following venues:[13]

The Slovenian Football Association proposed the following venues:[14]

The provisional schedule was announced on 6 November 2019.[15][16]

Squads

Each national team have to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers. If a player is injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he can be replaced by another player.[8]

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

In the group stage, 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 18.01 and 18.02):[8]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. 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;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. 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);
  8. Disciplinary points (red card = 3 points, yellow card = 1 point, expulsion for two yellow cards in one match = 3 points);
  9. UEFA coefficient ranking for the final draw.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Group A
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Hungary (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2 A2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 A3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 A4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on TBD. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Host.
A3vA4
Hungary vA2
Hungary vA3
A2vA4
A4v Hungary
A2vA3

Group B
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1  Slovenia (H) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2 B2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 B3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 B4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on TBD. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Host.
Slovenia vB2
B3vB4
B2vB4
Slovenia vB3
B4v Slovenia
B2vB3

Group C
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 C1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2 C2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 C3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 C4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on TBD. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
C1vC2
C3vC4
C1vC3
C2vC4
C4vC1
C2vC3

Group D
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 D1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Knockout stage
2 D2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 D3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 D4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
First match(es) will be played on TBD. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
D1vD2
D3vD4
D1vD3
D2vD4
D4vD1
D2vD3

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.[8]

Bracket
 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
TBD – TBD
 
 
Winner Group A
 
TBD – TBD
 
Runner-up Group C
 
Winner Quarter-final 1
 
TBD – TBD
 
Winner Quarter-final 2
 
Winner Group C
 
6 June – Ljubljana
 
Runner-up Group A
 
Winner Semi-final 1
 
TBD – TBD
 
Winner Semi-final 2
 
Winner Group B
 
TBD – TBD
 
Runner-up Group D
 
Winner Quarter-final 3
 
TBD – TBD
 
Winner Quarter-final 4
 
Winner Group D
 
 
Runner-up Group B
 

Quarter-finals
Winner Group AQuarter-final 1Runner-up Group C
Winner Group BQuarter-final 3Runner-up Group D
Winner Group CQuarter-final 2Runner-up Group A
Winner Group DQuarter-final 4Runner-up Group B

Semi-finals
Winner Quarter-final 1Semi-final 1Winner Quarter-final 2
Winner Quarter-final 3Semi-final 2Winner Quarter-final 4

Final
Winner Semi-final 1vWinner Semi-final 2

Broadcasting

Europe
Country/region Broadcaster
Free Pay
 Ireland Sky Sports[17]
 United Kingdom

Outside Europe

TBA

References
  1. "Hungary and Slovenia to co-host 2021 Under-21 EURO". UEFA. 3 December 2018.
  2. "Resolution of the European football family on a coordinated response to the impact of the COVID-19 on competitions". UEFA.com. Union of European Football Associations. 17 March 2020. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  3. "Executive Committee approves guidelines on eligibility for participation to UEFA competitions". UEFA.com. 23 April 2020.
  4. "UEFA Executive Committee meeting postponed to 17 June". UEFA.com. 18 May 2020.
  5. "UEFA Executive Committee agenda for June meeting". UEFA.com. 11 June 2020.
  6. "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
  7. "Aleksander Čeferin re-elected UEFA President until 2023". UEFA.com. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  8. "2019–21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship regulations" (PDF). UEFA.
  9. "Szlovéniával együtt pályázzuk meg az U21-es foci Eb-t". 444.hu. 26 July 2018.
  10. "Maribor resen kandidat za gostitelja EP U21 v nogometu leta 2021". mariborinfo.com. 18 August 2018.
  11. "UEFA Executive Committee agenda for Dublin meeting". UEFA.com. 16 November 2018.
  12. "UEFA Direct #181" (PDF). UEFA.com. 31 October 2018. p. 51.
  13. "Példátlan nemzetközi sorozat: 2021-ben U21-es Eb-t rendezünk". Hungarian Football Federation. 3 December 2018.
  14. "Finale UEFA evropskega prvenstva do 21 let v Sloveniji" (in Slovenian). Football Association of Slovenia. 17 June 2020. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  15. "2021 UEFA U21 provisional finals schedule". UEFA.com. 6 November 2019.
  16. "Labdarúgás: a 2021-es U21-es Európa-bajnokság előzetes menetrendje" (in Hungarian). Nemzeti Sport Online. 8 November 2019.
  17. "European U21 Championship 2017 live on Sky Sports this summer". Sky Sports. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
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