The Championnat National U17 is the highest tier of under-17

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in France. Organized by the

French Football Federation The French Football Federation ( FFF; french: Fédération Française de Football) is the governing body of football in France. It also includes the overseas departments ( Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte and Réunion), the over ...

, it is contested by 84 clubs that are split into 6 groups.

History

In 2009, the U18 youth championship of France was split into two age groups; the

Championnat National U19 The Championnat National U19 is the highest tier of under-19 football in France. Organized by the French Football Federation, it is contested by 56 clubs that are split into 4 groups. History In 2009, the ''Championnat National 18 ans'' of F ...

, which would replace the U18 league, and the Championnat National U17, a new league for this age category. Before this separation, a U16 league existed from 2002 to 2009 and a U15 league from 1990 to 2002. Therefore, the Championnat National U17 became the continuation for these now-disappeared competitions.

Format

The Championnat National U17 is an annual competition that is contested by 84 clubs, with 83 coming from France and 1 from Monaco. The teams are distributed into 6 geographically-determined groups of 14 teams. A season starts in the end of

summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

and ends the following the

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. In the league phase, each team plays each other twice (home and away) in their respective groups for a total of 26 matches played per team. Afterwards, the 6 first-place teams in addition to the 2 best second-place teams face off in a play-off phase. The winner of the final is crowned French under-17 champion.

Clubs

2021–22 season

For the 2021–22 season, 84 clubs participated in the Championnat National U17.

Performances by club

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

have won the most titles, with four. The title was not awarded for the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons 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 identif ...

, and no competition was held for the 1994–95 season.

References

External links

Website
Football leagues in France Under-17 association football Youth football leagues in Europe 1990 establishments in France Sports leagues established in 1990 {{DEFAULTSORT:Championnat National U17 fr:Championnat National U17#Championnat U17