2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Qualification

Main article: 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification

The draw for the group stage of qualifying for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship took place on 3 February in Nyon, Switzerland. 52 national teams took part in the qualifying. The group stage of qualifying began on 25 March 2011. There were a total of ten groups, consisting of five or six teams each. All the teams in each group faced each other two times, at home and away. The team at the top of each group and the four best second-placed teams qualified to the playoff round. In the playoff round, the 14 teams were drawn to play seven two-legged matches. The winners joined Israel in the tournament finals.

List of qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship:

• (hosts)

Venues

The Competition was played at four venues in major cities all around Israel: Bloomfield (Tel Aviv), Teddy (Jerusalem), HaMoshava (Petah Tikva) and the Netanya Stadium (Netanya).

Match officials

In December 2012, it was announced that these six referees would take charge of matches at the final tournament:

• Ivan Bebek (Croatia)
• Serhiy Boiko (Ukraine)
• Antony Gautier (France)
• Paweł Gil (Poland)
• Ovidiu Haţegan (Romania)
• Matej Jug (Slovenia)

It was furthermore announced that additional assistant referees would be deployed at Israel's final tournament.

Seeding

The draw for the final tournament took place on 28 November 2012 in Tel Aviv. As the highest-ranked team according to the competition coefficient rankings, Spain were one of the top two seeds alongside hosts Israel. Those two sides were drawn into separate groups, as were the second and third-ranked teams in the list, England and the Netherlands. The remaining four countries were unseeded and were placed in the remaining positions in the two four-team sections.

Squads

Main article: 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship squads

The deadline for the submission of the final 23-man squads was 26 May 2013, ten days before the opening match.

Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 28 November 2012 in Tel Aviv.

All times are local (UTC+3).

Group A

Turgeman Singh

Berget Eikrem Gabbiadini Florenzi

Group B

Wijnaldum Fer Holtby

De Jong John Hoesen Fer

Isco Vázquez Rudy

Knockout stage

Bracket

|15 June – Netanya||3||0 |15 June – Petah Tikva||1||0 |18 June – Jerusalem|****|4||2|

Semifinals

Isco Morata

Final

Main article: 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship Final

Isco Borini

Team of the Tournament

The UEFA Technical Team was charged with naming a squad composed of the 23 best players over the course of the tournament. Spain, with eleven, had the most players in the team of the tournament.

;UEFA Team of the Tournament

Goalscorers

;4 goals

• ESP Álvaro Morata

;3 goals

• ESP Thiago (1 assist — silver boot winner)
• ESP Isco (0 assists — bronze boot winner)

;2 goals

• GER Sebastian Rudy
• ITA Manolo Gabbiadini
• ITA Fabio Borini
• NED Georginio Wijnaldum
• NED Leroy Fer

;1 goal

• ENG Craig Dawson
• GER Lewis Holtby
• GER Patrick Herrmann
• ISR Alon Turgeman
• ISR Nir Biton
• ISR Ofir Kriaf
• ITA Alessandro Florenzi
• ITA Andrea Bertolacci
• ITA Ciro Immobile
• ITA Lorenzo Insigne
• ITA Riccardo Saponara
• NED Adam Maher
• NED Danny Hoesen
• NED Luuk de Jong
• NED Ola John
• NOR Fredrik Semb Berge
• NOR Harmeet Singh
• NOR Jo Inge Berget
• NOR Magnus Wolff Eikrem
• NOR Marcus Pedersen
• NOR Stefan Strandberg
• RUS Alan Dzagoev
• RUS Denis Cheryshev
• ESP Álvaro Vázquez
• ESP Rodrigo

Official match ball

The official ball for the UEFA European Under-21 Championship was unveiled during the draw in Tel Aviv on 28 November 2012. The ball had the same blue and white colours as tournament hosts Israel and its design featured the same thermally bonded triangular patterns as the Adidas Tango 12, match ball of UEFA Euro 2012.

Calls to boycott tournament

After Israel was announced as host, there were calls by some to boycott the tournament. The most prominent petition against the tournament taking place in Israel was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which demanded UEFA President Michel Platini reverse his decision. Another petition organised by Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK demanded that UEFA move the tournament to England after the UEFA considered asking the FA to be on standby if the Gaza-Israel conflict continued.

Another petition, organised by former Sevilla footballer Frédéric Kanouté and containing the name of 50 professional footballers who had signed it, also gained media attention but attracted criticism when some of the names listed on it were disputed. Didier Drogba, for example, claimed he never signed the petition and his name was removed from the list.

Broadcast from UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Américas

• United States: ESPN, ESPN 2 or ESPN 3 (All matches live in Pay TV)

• Brazil: SporTV

• Spanish speaking Latin America: DirecTV Sports (South América and Caribbean) / SKY (Mexico and Central América) (All matches live on Channels of DirecTV Sports in South América and Caribbean / Sky Sports in Mexico and Central América). Free TV

• Uruguay: Monte Carlo TV

• Paraguay: SNT (Channel 9) and Paravisión (Channel 5)

• Ecuador: RTS (Canal 6) and LaTele (Channel 14).

• Chile: Telecanal

• Peru ATV (Channel 9) and Global TV (Channel 13)

• Venezuela: RCTV and TVes

References

References

1. (21 June 2013). "Thiago leads all-star squad dominated by Spain". [[UEFA]].
2. (27 January 2011). "Israel awarded U21 Championship in 2013". UEFA.
3. (31 January 2011). "Draw signals first steps on road to Israel". UEFA.
4. "UEFA deploys Additional Assistant Referees at Under-21 Championship - The 3rd Team".
5. (16 October 2012). "Under-21 finals lineup complete". [[UEFA]].
6. (19 October 2012). "Spain and Israel top seeds for Under-21 draw". [[UEFA]].
7. (28 November 2012). "Spain draw Germany, Israel get England". [[UEFA]].
8. (18 June 2013). "Morata wins Golden Boot in Spanish clean sweep". [[UEFA]].
9. (28 November 2012). "U21 tournament ball unveiled in Tel Aviv". [[UEFA]].
10. "PSC boycott site".
11. "'Move the European Under-21 Championship to England from Israel' – MPACUK".
12. [http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/91690/uefa-postpones-match-after-tel-aviv-bomb-blast 'Uefa postpones match after Tel Aviv bomb blast' – The Jewish Chronicle]
13. "Freddie Kanouté's petition with names listed in support".
14. ""Boycotts criticised"".
15. [http://gulfnews.com/sport/football/drogba-denies-backing-pro-palestinian-petition-1.1114591 "Didier Drogba denies signing petition"]