Qualification for the final tournament of the 2003 UEFA European Under-17 Championship consisted of two rounds: a
Qualifying round and an
Elite round. In the qualifying round, 44 national teams competed in 11 groups of four teams, with two best teams of each group advancing to the elite round. There, the 22 first-round qualifiers plus the teams who were given a
bye (Spain, England, Russia, Finland, Poland and Hungary), were distributed in seven groups of four teams. The winner of each group qualified for the final tournament.
Qualified teams The following 8 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002). == Venues ==