2000 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
The UEFA U-21 Championship 2000, which spanned two years (1998-2000), had 47 entrants. Northern Ireland competed for the first time. For the first time a finals tournament with two groups of four teams was held, with one of those teams, Slovakia, having been chosen as the hosts.
Italy U-21s won the competition for the fourth time.
The 47 national teams were divided into nine groups (seven groups of 5 + two groups of 6). The records of the nine group runners-up were then compared. The top seven joined the nine winners in a play-off for the eight finals spots. One of the eight qualifiers was then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.
The top four teams in this competition qualified for Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Read more about 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship: Olympic Qualifiers
Famous quotes containing the words european and/or football:
“Assassination is the perquisite of princes.”
—19th-century European court cliché.
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)