The 2020 UEFA European Under-19 Championship (also known as UEFA Under-19 Euro 2020) was scheduled to be the 19th edition of the

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

(69th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual international youth football championship organised by

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

for the men's under-19 national teams of Europe. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the tournament was initially postponed, rescheduled and was cancelled in October 2020.

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, which last hosted the tournament in 2005, was selected as host by UEFA on 9 December 2016. As in previous editions held in even-numbered years, the tournament was due to act as the UEFA qualifiers for the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

. The top five teams of the tournament were to qualify for the

2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup was to be the 23rd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

as the UEFA representatives. Following the cancellation of the tournament, UEFA instead nominated the top five ranked countries in the qualifying round coefficient ranking.

Postponements and eventual cancellation

The final tournament was originally scheduled to be played between 19 July – 1 August 2020. Due to the

, UEFA announced on 1 April 2020 that the tournament had been postponed until further notice. On 17 June 2020, UEFA announced that the final tournament had been rescheduled and would be played in two periods, with the group stage played between 7–14 October 2020, and the knockout stage, which would consist of the semi-finals, the FIFA U-20 World Cup play-off and the final, played between 11 and 14 November 2020. UEFA then announced on 13 August 2020 that after consultation with the 55 member associations, the final tournament had been further postponed, with the group stage played in November 2020 and the knockout stage played in March 2021. On 16 September 2020, UEFA announced that the tournament would be played in March 2021 in straight knock-out format, consisting of the quarter-finals, semi-finals, final, and play-off matches to decide the fifth team to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Finally, the tournament was cancelled by UEFA on 20 October 2020.

Qualification

A total of 54 UEFA nations entered the competition. The hosts Northern Ireland would have qualified automatically, with the other 53 teams competing in the qualifying competition.

Venues

The tournament was due to be held in four venues:

References

External links

*
Under-19 Matches: 2020
UEFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:UEFA European Under-19 Championship 2020

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Under-19 Championship 2020 in youth association football 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup qualification Association football events cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic