The UEFA Executive Committee approved the foundation of the new competition at its Glasgow meeting on 22 May. The Women's U17 Championship is to be held every year with the first competition counting as the European qualifying competition for the 2008 FIFA U17 Women's World Cup.

The structure of the first competition will depend upon the number of associations that apply to take part in the event, with a deadline for applications being set for Friday, 30 June 2006. It is likely that mini-tournaments or play-off matches will precede a finals tournament.

Like the UEFA European U17 Championship for men, matches will be played in two halves of 40 minutes rather than the standard 45 minutes each way for senior players.

Players eligible to play in the inaugural tournament must have been born on or before 1 January 1991 and must be 15 by the end of the calendar year in which any match they are involved in is played.

Dates have already been set for qualifying games. If there is to be a first qualifying round, matches will take place between 1 August and 31 October 2007, while second qualifying phase games must be played before mid-April 2008. The final tournament will be held in the latter half of May 2008.

By introducing this competition UEFA underlines further its commitment to women's football and recognises the continual increase of activities in this sector.

In addition UEFA also hope that this new championship will encourage and motivate those member associations who do not currently take part in a women's European competition to do so in the very near future.

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