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U17s braced for Turkish trek

Written by Administrator
Friday, 13 July 2007
It it two months since Spain won the UEFA European Under-17 Championship and the holders will not have far to travel when qualifying for the 2007/08 edition begins in autumn. Spain in Andorra Fifty-two teams are attempting to secure one of the seven berths in the finals alongside hosts Turkey, and unlike in recent seasons when the top seeds were given a bye, all of those nations will begin their campaign in the qualifying round. The first of 13 mini-tournaments to begin is Group 5, where Denmark, Ukraine and Slovenia travel to the Republic of Ireland, while Spain are in Group 4 hosted by Andorra from 1 October, with Wales and San Marino also involved. Montenegro are making their bow in this tournament, and they will be welcomed by 2007 finals hosts Belgium from 22 October in Group 12 along with Northern Ireland and Moldova. Elite round The top two sides from each group and the two third-placed teams from across the 13 pools with the best record against the leading pair in their mini-tournament will progress to the Elite round draw at November's UEFA Youth Conference in Cannes. Those teams will be split into seven groups of four to be played in the spring, with the mini-tournament winners progressing to Turkey for the finals based in Antalya. http://www.uefa.com/competitions/under17/news/kind=1/newsid=560027.html !