Initially, 12 teams were to play in the tournament, however on 6 February 2019, UEFA's executive committee increased this number to 16.

[5] The new dates were to be decided initially on 27 May 2020,[6] but then postponed to 17 June 2020,[7] where the UEFA Executive Committee meeting discussed the calendar and format of the tournament.

The following associations indicated their interests to bid for the tournament: Hungary and Slovenia were appointed as co-hosts at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Dublin, Republic of Ireland on 3 December 2018.

Instead, the nine group winners and the five best runners-up (not counting results against the sixth-placed team) qualified for the final tournament.

The final draw was held on 10 December 2020, 15:00 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

The teams were seeded according to their coefficient ranking following the end of the qualifying stage, calculated based on the following:[3] The hosts Hungary and Slovenia were assigned to position A1 and B1 respectively in the draw, while the other fourteen teams were drawn to the other available positions in their group.