The draw was held on 24 June 2016, 13:30 CEST, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The 36 teams were allocated into four seeding positions based on their UEFA club coefficientsat the beginning of the season. They were drawn into nine groups of four containing one team from each of the four seeding positions. First, the nine teams which were pre-selected as hosts were drawn from their own designated pot and allocated to their respective group as per their seeding positions. Next, the remaining 27 teams were drawn from their respective pot which were allocated according to their seeding positions. Based on the decision taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel at its meeting in Paris on 9 June 2016, teams from Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina would not be drawn against teams from Kosovo. Below are the 36 teams which participated in the qualifying round, with the nine teams which were pre-selected as hosts marked by .
In each group, teams played against each other in a round-robin mini-tournament at the pre-selected hosts. The nine group winners advanced to the round of 32 to join the 23 teams which qualified directly.
Tiebreakers
The teams are ranked according to points. If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied in the order given to determine the rankings :
higher number of points obtained in the group matches played among the teams in question;
superior goal difference from the group matches played among the teams in question;
higher number of goals scored in the group matches played among the teams in question;
if, after having applied criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
superior goal difference in all group matches;
higher number of goals scored in all group matches;
if only two teams have the same number of points, and they are tied according to criteria 1 to 6 after having met in the last round of the group, their rankings are determined by a penalty shoot-out.
lower disciplinary points total based only on yellow and red cards received in all group matches ;
