2016–17 UEFA Youth League

2016–17 UEFA Youth League

Tournament details
Dates	September 2016 – April 2017
Teams	64 (from Minimum of 32 associations)

The 2016–17 UEFA Youth League will be the fourth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.

Chelsea are the title holders after winning the previous two editions. However, since the UEFA Youth League title holders do not get an automatic qualifying place, and both the Chelsea senior team failed to qualify for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League and the Chelsea academy team failed to win the 2015–16 Professional U18 Development League 1, they will not be participating in this tournament to defend their title.

Teams

A total of 64 teams from a minimum of 32 of the 54 UEFA member associations enter the tournament. They are split into two sections:

• The youth teams of the 32 clubs which qualified for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League group stage enter the UEFA Champions League Path.
• The youth domestic champions of the top 32 associations according to their 2015 UEFA country coefficients enter the Domestic Champions Path (associations without a youth domestic champion as well as domestic champions already included in the UEFA Champions League path are replaced by the next association in the UEFA ranking).^[1][2]

Rank	Association	Teams
		UEFA Champions League Path	Domestic Champions Path
	TBD	Youth team of Winners of 2015–16 UEFA Europa League Youth team of Winners of 2016–17 UEFA Champions League play-off round (10 teams)
Associations which are certain to participate
1	Spain	Barcelona Atlético Madrid Real Madrid	Champions of 2015–16 División de Honor Juvenil U19
2	England	Leicester City Youth team of Top three of 2015–16 Premier League Youth team of Top three of 2015–16 Premier League	Manchester City (2015–16 Professional U18 Development League 1)[3]
3	Germany	Bayern Munich Borussia Dortmund Bayer Leverkusen	Champions of 2015–16 U19 Bundesliga
4	Italy	Juventus Youth team of Top two of 2015–16 Serie A	Champions of 2015–16 Campionato Primavera U19
5	Portugal	Benfica Sporting CP	Champions of 2015–16 Campeonato Nacional Juniores S19
6	France	Paris Saint-Germain Youth team of Top two of 2015–16 Ligue 1	Champions of 2015–16 Championnat National U19
7	Russia	Youth team of Champions of 2015–16 Russian Premier League	Champions of 2015–16 Russian U17 League
8	Ukraine	Dynamo Kyiv	Champions of 2015–16 Ukrainian U19 League
9	Netherlands	Youth team of Champions of 2015–16 Eredivisie	Champions of 2015–16 U19 Eredivisie
10	Belgium	Youth team of Champions of 2015–16 Belgian Pro League	Anderlecht (2015–16 Belgian U17 League)[4]
11	Switzerland	Basel	Champions of 2015–16 Swiss U18 League
12	Turkey	Youth team of Champions of 2015–16 Süper Lig	Champions of 2015–16 U19 Elit Ligi
13	Greece		Champions of 2015–16 Super League K17
14	Czech Republic		Champions of 2015–16 Czech U19 League
15	Romania		Champions of 2015–16 Romanian U19 League
16	Austria		Champions of 2015–16 U18 Jugendliga
17	Croatia		Champions of 2015–16 1. HNL Juniori U19
18	Cyprus		APOEL (2015–16 Cypriot U17 League)[5]
19	Poland		Champions of 2015–16 Central Junior League U19
20	Israel		Maccabi Haifa (2015–16 Israeli U19 Premier League)[6]
21	Belarus		Champions of 2015–16 Belarusian U19 League
22	Denmark		Champions of 2015–16 U19 Ligaen
23	Scotland		Champions of 2015–16 Scottish U17 League
24	Sweden		AIK (2015 Swedish U17 League)[7]
25	Bulgaria		Litex Lovech (2016 Bulgarian U19 League)[8]
26	Norway		Rosenborg (2015 Norwegian U19 League)[9]
27	Serbia		Champions of 2015–16 Serbian U19 League
28	Slovenia		Champions of 2015–16 Slovenian U19 League
29	Azerbaijan		Gabala (2015–16 Azerbaijani U19 League)[10]
30	Slovakia		Nitra (2015–16 Slovak U19 League)[11]
31	Hungary		Champions of 2015–16 Hungarian U19 League
32	Kazakhstan		Kairat (2015 Kazakhstani U18 League)[12]
Associations which may participate (if a team qualifies for UEFA Champions League group stage, or there is a vacancy in Domestic Champions Path)
33	Moldova
34	Georgia
35	Finland
36	Iceland
37	Bosnia and Herzegovina
38	Liechtenstein
39	Macedonia
40	Republic of Ireland
41	Montenegro
42	Albania
43	Luxembourg
44	Northern Ireland
45	Lithuania
46	Latvia
47	Malta
48	Estonia
49	Faroe Islands
50	Wales
51	Armenia
52	Andorra
53	San Marino
54	Gibraltar
55	Kosovo

Squads

Players must be born on or after 1 January 1998, with a maximum of three players per team born between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 1997 allowed.

References

1. "Country coefficients 2014/15". UEFA.com.
2. "UEFA Country Ranking 2015". Bert Kassies.
3. "Man City win U18 title after thriller at Everton". Premier League. 4 May 2016.
4. "OOK U17 KRONEN ZICH TOT KAMPIOEN". Anderlecht Youth Team Website. 30 April 2016.
5. "Πρωταθλητής ο ΑΠΟΕΛ U17!". SigmaLive. 5 March 2016.
6. "בפעם ה-13: מכבי חיפה אלופת המדינה לנוער". SPORT 5. 30 April 2016.
7. "AIK segrade i U17-derbyt". Swedish Football Association. 1 November 2015.
8. "Литекс шокира Левски в 91-ата минута и отива отново в Шампионска лига". sportal.bg. 4 May 2016.
9. "Første norgesmesterskapet for helga". RBKweb. 21 November 2015.
10. "«Qəbələ» U-19 Liqasının çempionu oldu". Gabala SC. 4 May 2016.
11. "U19 zlatá už päť kôl pred skončením súťaže". FC Nitra. 2 May 2016.
12. "«Кайрат» - в Лиге Чемпионов!". FC Kairat. 23 October 2015.

External links

• UEFA Youth League (official website)