2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 12th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Slovakia from 27 May to 4 June 2000. The tournament had 47 entrants. Northern Ireland competed for the first time. For the first time a finals tournament with two groups of four teams was held, with one of those teams, Slovakia, having been chosen as the hosts. The top four teams in this competition qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Italy won the competition for the fourth time, thus qualified for the Olympic Games finals, alongside Czech Republic, Slovakia and Spain.

Qualification
The 47 national teams were divided into nine groups (seven groups of 5 + two groups of 6). The records of the nine group runners-up were then compared. The top seven joined the nine winners in a play-off for the eight finals spots. One of the eight qualifiers was then chosen to host the remaining fixtures.

Qualified teams

 * 1 Bold indicates champion for that year
 * 2 Italic indicates host for that year
 * 3 England were originally scheduled to play two legs against Yugoslavia. However, the first leg which was supposed to have taken place in Belgrade was cancelled due to political tensions. An alternative leg in Luxembourg was also cancelled due to security reasons. A second leg at Mini Estadi in Barcelona was held on 29 March 2000, which England won 3–0.

Venues
Four venues were selected for the competition.

Match officials
Seven match officials and nine assistants were selected for the competition, including two officials representing the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Selearajen Subramaniam from Malaysia and Hamdi Al Kadri from Syria.

Goalscorers
Andrea Pirlo was the top goalscorer of three goals. He was also announced as the UEFA Golden Player award recipient.
 * 3 goals


 * 🇮🇹 Andrea Pirlo


 * 2 goals


 * Igor Tudor
 * 🇨🇿 Lukáš Došek
 * 🇨🇿 David Jarolím
 * 🇮🇹 Roberto Baronio
 * 🇸🇰 Peter Babnič


 * 1 goal


 * Darko Miladin
 * Anthony Šerić
 * 🇨🇿 Milan Baroš
 * 🇨🇿 Tomáš Došek
 * 🇨🇿 Marek Jankulovski
 * 🇨🇿 Adam Petrouš
 * 🇨🇿 Libor Sionko
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Andy Campbell
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Carl Cort
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Francis Jeffers
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Ledley King
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Frank Lampard
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Danny Mills
 * 🇮🇹 Gianni Comandini
 * 🇮🇹 Gionatha Spinesi
 * 🇮🇹 Nicola Ventola
 * Anthony Lurling
 * Mark van Bommel
 * Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
 * 🇪🇸 Miguel Ángel Angulo
 * 🇪🇸 Jordi Ferrón
 * 🇪🇸 Albert Luque
 * 🇸🇰 Marián Čišovský
 * 🇸🇰 Vratislav Greško
 * 🇸🇰 Szilárd Németh
 * 🇹🇷 Serhat Akın
 * 🇹🇷 Ahmet Dursun

Medal table and Olympic qualifiers

 * Italy, Czechia, Spain and Slovakia qualified for Olympic Games finals.