BUCHAREST, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Romania will host the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in 2021, announced the Romanian Football Federation on Tuesday.

The final tournament of the 2021 UEFA European Under-19 Championship will be hosted by Romania in July and will bring together eight teams, according to a decision of the UEFA Executive Committee, which had a meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Romania will qualify directly as hosts.

The UEFA European Under-19 Championship is the successor to the FIFA junior tournament, which began in 1948 as a U-18 event and was taken over by UEFA in 1955. Ever since 1980, the tournament was dedicated to the U-18 category and since 2002 it has been dedicated to the U-21 category. In the current format, Romania also hosted the 2011 tournament, according to official Agerpres news agency.

Slovakia will stage the U-19 Euro final tournaments in 2022, according to the decision at the same meeting in Ljubljana.

The UEFA European Under-19 Championship is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations in UEFA.