UKU U14 & U17 Open Indoor National Championships Series Competition Structure Outline
Event entry
Information about venues and dates for all U14/U17 indoor tournaments in the 2025/26 season can be found here.
In the 2025-26 season, there will be qualification to U14/U17 Open Indoor Nationals via three Qualifier events.
You can enter one of the U14/U17 Open Indoor Qualifiers by clicking on the appropriate event page: Manchester, Horsham, Swindon. There is a single event on JustGo for all qualifiers to be used for entry by teams.
In general, we are expecting to allocate teams from the Midlands and further north to the Manchester event, teams from London and the South East to the Horsham event, and teams from the South West, Bristol, Oxford and Reading to the Swindon event. Should teams wish to enter a different one to the one they have been allocated, please email events@ukultimate.com. New teams should contact UKU for advice on which event to enter. Otherwise, we will assign you to an event following the outline above.
U14 / U17 National Championships Finals Qualification
There will be a minimum of 4 bids to the National Championships Finals per qualifier (from 3 qualifier events in 2025), with the final 4 bids to be allocated by UKU based on relative size once entries for the Qualifiers have closed.
Game format
The U14s and U17s indoor open divisions will be played as 4-a-side. This is a one year trial for 2025/26 and will be reviewed after the 2025/26 competition. Please note that all other youth divisions will remain as they currently are (5-a-side).
Roster rules
With the new competition structure of qualifying events to reach the National Championships Finals, we would like to clarify a few additional eligibility rules that will apply to teams who reach the Finals (these rules are quite similar to current eligibility rules in place in the club and university tournament structures).
No additional eligibility rules are in place for the qualifying events, all normal eligibility rules apply as found in 8.1.2 of the UKU Tournament Rules - Event Specific Rule Appendices.pdf
Individuals who play for a team that qualify to the Finals are locked to playing for the club/school that team is from.
Where a club/school has multiple teams that qualify for the Finals, they are permitted to promote players to a higher ranked team within their club/school (e.g. from the 3s to the 2s) but cannot move players down.
Individuals who play for teams that do not qualify for the Finals have no additional eligibility rules placed on them and may play for a different team subject to 8.1.2 of the Event Specific Rule Appendices.
Challenge Plate
This tournament will be run in addition to the Finals with the aim of providing more opportunities for youth participation and development, particularly for teams who do not qualify for the Finals. It will take place on March 15th 2025 at the Swindome.
The only roster/eligibility rules in places for this tournament are as follows:
The top 3 finishing teams at each qualifying event will not be allowed to attend the Challenge Plate.
Individuals who play for a top 3 finishing team at a qualifying event are not eligible to play for a team at the Challenge Plate.
