[1] A total of 46 national teams, with Andorra entering a UEFA women's competition for the first time, entered this qualifying competition, which was played in two rounds between September 2015 and March 2016.

If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of a mini-tournament, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[3] To determine the best runner-up from the elite round, the results against the teams in fourth place were discarded.

The following criteria were applied:[3] The draw for the qualifying round was held on 19 November 2014, 08:40 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

The draw for the elite round was held on 13 November 2015, 11:45 CET (UTC+1), at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

[10] Germany and France, which received byes to the elite round, were automatically seeded into Pot A.