2016–17 UEFA Youth League
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 13 September 2016 – 24 April 2017 |
| Teams | 64 (from 40 associations) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |
 Red Bull Salzburg (1st title)
|
| Runners-up |
 Benfica
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 167 |
| Goals scored | 550 (3.29 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) |
 Jordi Mboula Kaj Sierhuis(8 goals each) |
The 2016–17 UEFA Youth League was the fourth season of the UEFA Youth League, a European youth club football competition organised by UEFA.
Chelsea were the title holders after winning the previous two editions. However, since the UEFA Youth League title holders were not given an automatic qualifying place, and both the Chelsea senior team failed to qualify for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League and the Chelsea academy team failed to win the 2015–16 Professional U18 Development League 1, they did not qualify for this tournament to defend their title.
Red Bull Salzburg won their first title after defeating Benfica 2–1 in the final. This was the first occasion that the winner (or a finalist) had come through the Domestic Champions Path of the competition.
A total of 64 teams from 40 of the 55 UEFA member associations entered the tournament. They were split into two sections:
Players had to be born on or after 1 January 1998, with a maximum of three players per team born between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 1997 allowed.
The schedule of the competition is as follows (all draws are held at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, unless stated otherwise).
For the UEFA Champions League Path, the 32 teams were drawn into eight groups of four. There was no separate draw held, with the group compositions identical to the draw for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League group stage, which was held on 25 August 2016, 18:00 CEST, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The eight group winners advance to the round of 16, while the eight runners-up advance to the play-offs, where they are joined by the eight second round winners from the Domestic Champions Path. The matchdays are 13–14 September, 27–28 September, 18–19 October, 1–2 November, 22–23 November, and 6–7 December 2016.
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