The 2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the second edition of UEFA's UEFA European Under-17 Championship. Portugal hosted the championship, during 7–17 May. The format of the competition changed, and only 8 teams entered the competition. Host Portugal defeated Spain in the final to win the competition for the fifth time.
For winning their semifinals, Portugal and Spain qualified for the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship, held in Finland, with England and Austria missing out.
Qualification for the final tournament of the 2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship consisted of two rounds: a Qualifying round and an Elite round. In the qualifying round, 44 national teams competed in 11 groups of four teams, with two best teams of each group advancing to the elite round. There, the 22 first-round qualifiers plus the teams who were given a bye (Spain, England, Russia, Finland, Poland and Hungary), were distributed in seven groups of four teams. The winner of each group qualified for the final tournament.
The following 8 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).
The final tournament was played in seven venues located in seven different cities, Viseu, Nelas, Chaves, Mangualde, Vila Real, Santa Comba Dão and Santa Marta de Penaguião. The Estádio do Fontelo was the largest stadium with a tournament capacity of 12,000 seats, and served as both the opening ceremony and the final venue.
The table below lists stadium capacity for the final tournament, which may not correspond to their effective maximum capacity.
Each participating national association had to submit a final list of 18 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers). All players must have been born on or after 1 January 1986.
A total of 6 referees, 8 assistant referees and 2 fourth officials were appointed for the final tournament.[2]
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