The

1994 UEFA European Under-21 Championship File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

qualification began in 1992 and finished in early 1994. The final tournament was held in March and April 1994 in France. The 32 national teams were divided into six groups (four groups of 5 + two groups of 6). The group winners and the two best runners-up played off against each other on a two-legged home-and-away basis to determine the final four, one of whom would host the last four matches. The team from

Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

, then known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (founded in April 1992) were excluded from the tournament for political reasons. They had been drawn in group five. In the first competition since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia competed. Wales also competed for the first time. Albeit had been dissolved in 1992, Czechoslovakia still competed for this time.

Qualifying group stage

Draw

The allocation of teams into qualifying groups was based on that of

1994 FIFA World Cup qualification The 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. The 1994 FIFA World Cup featured 24 teams with one place reserved for the host nation, United States, and one place for the defending champi ...

with several changes, reflecting the absence of some nations: * Group 1 did not include Estonia * Groups 2 and 6 featured the same nations * Group 3 did not include Northern Ireland,

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, but included Germany (who did not participate in World Cup qualification) * Group 4 did not include Faroe Islands * Group 5 featured the same nations. As in the World Cup qualifiers, Yugoslavia was excluded from the group after the draw

Group 1

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group 2

'' qualify as group winners''

Group 3

'' qualify as group winners''

Group 4

'' qualify as group winners''

Group 5

was excluded due to

Yugoslav war The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...

. '' qualify as group winners''
'' qualify as a "best runner-up"''

Group 6

'' qualify as group winners''

Ranking of second-placed teams

Because groups contained different number or teams (six and five), matches against the fifth- and sixth-placed teams in each group are not included in the ranking. As a result, six matches played by each team counted for the purposes of the second-placed table. The top seven advanced to the play-off.

Qualifying group stage

Draw

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

Group 5

Group 6

Ranking of second-placed teams

See also