European U21 Championship Qual

The competition in its current form has existed since 1978. It was preceded by the Under-23 Challenge Cup, which ran from 1967 to 1970. Bulgaria won the inaugural Challenge Cup in 1967, defeating East Germany 3–2. As defending champions, they faced randomly drawn "challengers" for a single match in Bulgaria. They retained the title three times, twice more in 1967 and once in 1968. By the final edition in 1970, only Bulgaria and Yugoslavia had won the competition.

A proper under-23 championship was then established, starting in 1972. It was held three times in the same format; the eight group winners contested the quarter-finals on a home-and-away basis. The semi-finals and final were also held over two legs. To overcome calendar issues, the qualifying groups were the same as the qualifying groups for the senior World Cup or European Championship, and the matches were played on the same day or weekend. This has changed starting with the 2006 edition, when a separate draw was held for the first time to form the qualifying groups.

At the UEFA conference in January 1976, the age limit was lowered to 21 for the 1978 tournament, and has remained so ever since. The rules at the time allowed each team to field two players over the age of 21. To be eligible for the campaign ending in 2027, players must be born in 2004 or later. Many may actually be 23 years old by the time of the final tournament; however, when the qualification process began (2025), all players would have been 21 or under.

In 1992, the Under-21 Championship became the European qualifying competition for the Olympic football tournament.

The tournament's record attendance was set during the knockout stage of the 2023 edition, when 44,338 spectators gathered for the match between hosts Georgia and Israel.