2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship

2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship
Pencampwriaeth Ewropeaidd Dan-19 UEFA 2026
Tournament details
Host country	Wales
Dates	28 June–11 July
Teams	8 (from 1 confederation)
	← 2025 2027 →

The 2026 UEFA European Under-19 Championship will be the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (73rd edition if the Under-18 and Junior era is also included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-19 national teams of Europe. Wales, which were selected by UEFA on 26 September 2023, will host the tournament.^[1]^[2] A total of 8 teams will play in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2007 eligible to participate.

Same as previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan as the UEFA representatives besides Azerbaijan who automatically qualified as co-host, with the fifth-placed team advance to the intercontinental play-off series.

Venues

Upon being awarded the tournament in 2023, the Football Association of Wales anticipated that the tournament would be hosted in 5 venues (Bangor, Colwyn Bay, Deeside, Denbigh and Wrexham), with a later release no longer stating Deeside or Colwyn Bay as a venue, and replacing it with Caernarfon. Colwyn Bay was named as a training ground for the tournament.^[3]. In November 2025, a test event was organised, which involved matches in Denbigh, Wrexham, and Rhyl, the latter not among the initial five named locations but will act as a training venue.^[4]

Wrexham	Bangor
Racecourse Ground	Nantporth
Capacity: 13,341	Capacity: 3,000

Wrexham Bangor Denbigh Caernarfon
Caernarfon	Denbigh
The Oval Capacity: 3,000	Central Park Capacity: 2,300

Qualification

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-19 era (since 2002).

Team	Qualification method	Date of qualification	Appearance(s)				Previous best performance^[a]
Team	Qualification method	Date of qualification	Total	First	Last	Streak	Previous best performance^[a]
Wales	Host nation	26 September 2023	1st	Debut
	Elite round Group 1 winners	31 March 2026
	Elite round Group 2 winners	31 March 2026
	Elite round Group 3 winners	31 March 2026
	Elite round Group 4 winners	31 March 2026
	Elite round Group 5 winners	31 March 2026
	Elite round Group 6 winners	31 March 2026
	Elite round Group 7 winners	31 March 2026

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria for group play
The ranking of teams in the group stage is determined as follows: Points obtained in all group matches; Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; 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; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; 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); Disciplinary points Yellow card: −1 point; Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points; Direct red card: −3 points; UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw; Drawing of lots.

Group A

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	Wales (H)	Knockout stage
2	A2	Knockout stage
3	A3	FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off
4	A4

First match(es) will be played: June 2026. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

Group B

Pos	Team	Qualification
1	B1	Knockout stage
2	B2	Knockout stage
3	B3	FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off
4	B4

First match(es) will be played: June 2026. Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following five teams from UEFA qualified for the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup including Azerbaijan which qualified as co-host. while one team advanced to the inter-confederation play-offs.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup¹
Azerbaijan	2 October 2025	0 (debut)
	July 2026
	July 2026
	July 2026
	July 2026

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Notes

^ Bold text indicates they hosted that edition.

References

^ "Wales and Israel to stage U19 EURO in 2026 and 2027". UEFA. Union of European Football Associations. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
^ "Wales to host UEFA U19 Euro Championship 2026". faw.cymru. FAW. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
^ "Wales to host UEFA U19 Euro Championship 2026". faw.cymru. FAW. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2024.
^ "UEFA MU19 EURO test event to take place in north Wales". faw.cymru. FAW. 29 October 2025. Retrieved 23 January 2026.

External links

Official website

[5] Bold text indicates they hosted that edition.

[1] "Wales and Israel to stage U19 EURO in 2026 and 2027". UEFA. Union of European Football Associations. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.

[2] "Wales to host UEFA U19 Euro Championship 2026". faw.cymru. FAW. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2024.

[3] "Wales to host UEFA U19 Euro Championship 2026". faw.cymru. FAW. 26 September 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2024.

[4] "UEFA MU19 EURO test event to take place in north Wales". faw.cymru. FAW. 29 October 2025. Retrieved 23 January 2026.

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