A qualifying round and elite round will lead to the eight-team final tournament to be held in May 2013 in Slovakia. The 52 countries in the qualifying round have been split into 13 groups of four, to be played as single-venue mini-tournaments in autumn 2012.

The top two in each group plus the two third-placed teams with the best record against the leading pair in their pool progress to the elite round in spring 2013, which will produce seven finalists to join Slovakia that May. The tournament will also act as a qualifier for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, to be staged later that year in the United Arab Emirates.

Malta will stage the last eight-team European Under-17 final tournament in 2014, with the first 16-nation events to be held in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan over the following two seasons.

Qualifying round draw
Group 1 (25-30 September): Belarus, Serbia*, Moldova, Armenia

Group 2 (3-8 October): Finland*, Germany, Andorra, San Marino

Group 3 (23-28 October): Belgium*, Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia

Group 4 (19-24 October): Spain, Poland, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria*

Group 5 (24-29 September): Greece, France, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina*

Group 6 (10-15 October): Austria*, Switzerland, Cyprus, Faroe Islands

Group 7 (21-26 October): England, Northern Ireland, Estonia*, Wales

Group 8 (18-23 October): Italy, Hungary*, Albania, Liechtenstein

Group 9 (29 September-4 October): Norway, Portugal, Malta*, Iceland

Group 10 (29 September-4 October): Republic of Ireland, Romania, Sweden, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*

Group 11 (25-30 September): Denmark, Czech Republic*, Montenegro, Russia

Group 12 (14-19 October): Turkey, Croatia*, Kazakhstan, Israel

Group 13 (30 October-4 November): Scotland, Georgia*, Luxembourg, Ukraine

*Hosts