All qualifying competition matches are played in the form of mini-tournaments in one of the countries in the group.
Each team plays each of the other teams in the group once, with three points awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat.
The 52 associations participating in the qualifying round are drawn into 13 groups of four teams. The UEFA administration establishes the draw procedure on the basis of the qualifying round coefficient rankings (see Annex A) and communicates it prior to the draw.
The team that qualifies for the elite round directly, the 13 group winners, the 13 runners-up and the five best third-placed teams in the qualifying round play the elite round.
The 32 associations participating in the elite round are ranked based on their results in the qualifying round (see Annex A.5) and drawn into eight groups of four teams each. The UEFA administration establishes the draw procedure and communicates it prior to the draw.
The eight group winners and the seven best runners-up of the elite round qualify for the final tournament.