2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship
The 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (33rd edition if the Under-16 era was also included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Bulgaria hosted the tournament. The finals featured 16 teams for the first time since 2002, as the number of teams was increased from eight in the previous tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 1998 were eligible to participate in this competition. The final tournament also acted as the  UEFA qualifier for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, with six teams qualifying (the four semi-finalists and the two winners of play-off matches between the losing quarter-finalists). Each match lasted 80 minutes, consisting of two halves of 40 minutes, with an interval of 15 minutes. Qualification. All 54 UEFA nations entered the competition and with the hosts Bulgaria qualifying automatically, the other 53 teams competed in the qualifying competition to determine the remaining 15 spots in the final tournament. The qualifying competition consisted of two rounds: Qualifying round, which took place in autumn 2014 and  Elite round, which took place in spring 2015. Qualified teams. The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament. "Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002)." Final draw. The final draw was held in Pomorie, Bulgaria on 2 April 2015, 14:00 EEST (). The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. There were no seeding except that the hosts Bulgaria were assigned to position A1 in the draw. Venues. The competition was played at four venues in four host cities: Beroe Stadium (in Stara Zagora), Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium (in Sliven), Lazur Stadium (in Burgas), and  Arena Sozopol (in Sozopol). Squads. Each national team had to submit a squad of 18 players. Match officials. A total of 9 referees, 12 assistant referees and 4 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament. Group stage. Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals. if two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings: All times were local, EEST (). Knockout stage. In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner if necessary  (no extra time was played). Quarter-finals. Winners qualified for 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup. Losers played in FIFA U-17 World Cup play-offs. FIFA U-17 World Cup play-offs. Winners qualified for 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup.