The Malta Under-17 team will face Austria, Norway and Bulgaria in Group 13 of the 2019/2020 UEFA Under-17 Championship qualifying round.
Norway will host the tournament in October 2019.
The qualifying round draw, held on Thursday morning at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, involved 52 of the 55 entrants on the road to the finals in Estonia in 2020.
The draw was conducted by John Delaney, chairman of the UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee, and Francisco Saldanha, who received the 2018 U17 EURO Fair Play prize on behalf of last season’s Portugal team, which he captained.
Ivan Vella, the Director of the National Teams, is representing the Malta FA in the UEFA U-19 and U-17 Championship qualifying draws.
QUALIFYING ROUND DRAW
Group 1: Belgium, Poland, FYR Macedonia, Liechtenstein
Group 2: Italy, Turkey, Northern Ireland, Luxembourg
Group 3: Republic of Ireland, Israel, Montenegro, Andorra
Group 4: Sweden, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Lithuania
Group 5: France, Slovakia, Cyprus, Gibraltar
Group 6: Serbia, Hungary, Belarus, Latvia
Group 7: Scotland, Croatia, Iceland, Armenia
Group 8: Portugal, Ukraine, Georgia, Albania
Group 9: Germany, Greece, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan
Group 10: Russia, Switzerland, Romania, San Marino
Group 11: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Finland, Moldova
Group 12: Netherlands, Slovenia, Wales, Kosovo
Group 13: Austria, Norway, Bulgaria, Malta
The top two teams in every group, along with the four third-placed sides with the best records against the leading pair, will follow Spain and England into the elite round in March 2020.
The eight elite round group winners and seven runners-up with the best records against the teams first and third in their pool will join Estonia in that May's finals.