The 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-19 Euro 2022) will be the 19th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (69th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-19 national teams of Europe. Slovakia will host the tournament.[1] A total of eight teams will play in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2003 eligible to participate.
| Majstrovstvá Európy vo futbale hráčov do 19 rokov 2022 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | Slovakia |
| Dates | July/August |
| Teams | 8 (from 1 confederation) |
| Venue(s) | TBC (in TBC host cities) |
Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acts as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top five teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup as the UEFA representatives.
Spain are the defending champions, having won the last tournament held in 2019, with the 2020 and 2021 editions cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe and the title was not awarded.
Host selection
The timeline of host selection was as follows:[2]
- 11 January 2019: bidding procedure launched
- 28 February 2019: deadline to express interest
- 27 March 2019: Announcement by UEFA that declaration of interest were received from 17 member associations to host one of the UEFA national team youth final tournaments (UEFA European Under-19 Championship, UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, UEFA European Under-17 Championship, UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship) in 2021 and 2022 (although it was not specified which association were interested in which tournament)
- 28 June 2019: Submission of bid dossiers
- 24 September 2019: Selection of successful host associations by the UEFA Executive Committee at its meeting in Ljubljana
For the UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournaments of 2021 and 2022, Romania and Slovakia were selected as hosts respectively.[1]
Qualification
The UEFA Executive Committee originally decided on 29 May 2019 to test a new qualifying format for the Under-19 Championship in 2022 and 2023.[3] The qualifying competition would have been played in four rounds over a two-year period from autumn 2020 to spring 2022, with teams divided into three leagues, and promotion and relegation between leagues after each round similar to the UEFA Nations League.[4] However, on 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that the introduction of the new format had been postponed to the 2023 edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and qualification for the 2022 edition would use the previous format involving two rounds only.[5][6]
A total of 54 (out of 55) UEFA nations entered the competition, and with the hosts Slovakia qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams will compete in the qualifying competition, which will consist of two rounds: Qualifying round, which will take place in autumn 2021, and Elite round, which will take place in spring 2022, to determine the remaining seven spots in the final tournament. The draw for the qualifying round was held on 9 December 2020, 10:30 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.[7][8]
Qualified teams
The following teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002).
| Team | Method of qualification | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Slovakia |
Hosts | 2nd | 2002 (third place) | Third place (2002) |
Venues
Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup
The following five teams from UEFA qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1 |
|---|---|---|
| TBD | 2022 | |
| TBD | 2022 | |
| TBD | 2022 | |
| TBD | 2022 | |
| TBD | 2022 |
- 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
References
- ^ a b "Romania, Slovakia to stage U19 EURO in 2021 and 2022". UEFA.com. 24 September 2019.
- ^ "17 member associations interested in hosting UEFA youth national team final tournaments in 2021 and 2022". UEFA.com. 27 March 2019.
- ^ "UEFA to ask FIFA/IFAB for new concussion protocol". UEFA.com. 29 May 2019.
- ^ "New Nations League format for U19 EURO: how it works". UEFA.com. 28 October 2019.
- ^ "UEFA competitions to resume in August". UEFA.com. 17 June 2020.
- ^ "2020 Under-19 EURO cancelled". UEFA.com. 20 October 2020.
- ^ "2021/22 U19 qualifying round draw: 9 December". UEFA.com. 4 December 2020.
- ^ "2021/22 UEFA European Under-17 and Under-19 Championships Qualifying round draws" (PDF). UEFA.com.