The draws of the Uefa U-17 football finals were held this evening at St James Cavalier in Valletta - with officials having some difficulty in opening the plastic capsules (provided by Uefa) holding the country names.

Malta qualified automatically as the host country of the championships, which will be held here between May 9 and 21. It was seeded in Group A to play against England, the Netherlands and Turkey.

The teams in Group B are Germany, Switzerland, Scotland and Portugal.

The Malta U-17 will become the first of Malta's national teams to make a showing in an advanced stage of a UEFA championship.

The opening game will be Malta vs England.

Today’s draw was conducted by UEFA Youth and Amateur Football Committee chairman Jim Boyce, ably assisted by Fr Hilary Tagliaferro, who managed to open the capsules for him, and former Malta international David Carabott.

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