The qualifying competition consists of two rounds:
Qualifying round: Apart from Portugal, which receive a bye to the elite round as the teams with the highest seeding coefficient, the remaining 52 teams are drawn into 13 groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The 13 group winners, the 13 runners-up, and the third-placed team with the best record against the first and second-placed teams in their group advance to the elite round.
Elite round: The 28 teams are drawn into seven groups of four teams. Each group is played in single round-robin format at one of the teams selected as hosts after the draw. The seven group winners qualify for the final tournament.
Qualifying round
Draw
The draw for the qualifying round was held on 3 December 2019, 10:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking, calculated based on the following:
2016 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
2019 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final tournament and qualifying competition
Each group contained one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Based on the decisions taken by the UEFA Emergency Panel, the following pairs of teams could not be drawn in the same group: Spain and Gibraltar, Ukraine and Russia, Serbia and Kosovo, Russia and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.
;Notes
Teams marked in bold have qualified for the final tournament.
Groups
The qualifying round must be played by 17 November 2020. Times up to 24 October 2020 are CEST, thereafter times are CET, as listed by UEFA.
Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Group 4
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Group 5
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Group 6
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Group 7
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Group 8
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Group 9
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Group 10
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Group 11
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Group 12
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Group 13
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Ranking of third-placed teams
To determine the best third-placed team from the qualifying round which advance to the elite round, only the results of the third-placed teams against the first and second-placed teams in their group are taken into account.
Elite round
Draw
The draw for the elite round will be held on 9 December 2020 at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The teams are seeded according to their results in the qualifying round. Portugal, which received a bye to the elite round, are automatically seeded into Pot A. Each group contains one team from Pot A, one team from Pot B, one team from Pot C, and one team from Pot D. Teams from the same qualifying round group cannot be drawn in the same group.
Groups
The elite round is scheduled to be played in spring 2021. Times up to 27 March 2021 are CET, thereafter times are CEST, as listed by UEFA.
Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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Group 4
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Group 5
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Group 6
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Group 7
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Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualify for the final tournament.
