A lot of football in store for our juniors!
Plus more financial, coaching, technical and organisational support to be given by FIFA to Member Associations and confederations that need it, like Oceania, to facilitate the increased demands of annual qualifying tournaments and FIFA finals.
This to me seems a great move to benefit less developed football territories like ours with a big increase in competitive u-17 international fixtures both at confederation level in more qualifiers (now annually) and FIFA finals.
And all necessary expenses will be paid by FIFA.
The FIFA men's & women's u-20 World Cups remain unchanged - played bi-annually by 24 teams.
https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/womens/womensworldcup/australia-new-zealand2023/news/2023-2027-fifa-president-lays-out-objectives-for-the-future Pledges made at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, March 2023:5. A FIFA World Cup™ every year for U-17sTo provide the best talent with the best opportunities, FIFA President Gianni Infantino committed to organising an annual FIFA U-17 World Cup™, for men and women, thereby providing more game time against global opposition for the best young players around the world; by doing so young players will be provided with the best possible chances to develop and fulfil their potential.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_U-17_World_Cup#Structure"From 2024 the tournament will take place annually and will have 48 participating teams divided into 4 'mini-tournaments' of 12 teams each divided into 3 groups of 4 with the winners and best runner up qualifying to the Mini Tournament semi-finals and the 2 winners qualifying to the final. The winner of each MT would qualify to a 'final four' tournament with 2 semi-finals, a third place match and a final to decide the FIFA U17 World Champions"
FIFA PROPOSAL FOR THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL YOUTH COMPETITIONS:
https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/687f15d2c3eca79b/original/FIFA-Proposal-for-the-future-of-global-youth-competitions.pdf Format: For the youth World Cups, the number of teams and format would be the same for men and women. Each tournament would have 48 participating teams and be split into four mini-tournaments of 12 teams. The winners of the mini-tournaments would play a final-four tournament to crown the champions of the respective youth World Cup. A visual representation of a 48-team tournament format is provided below (including the final-four tournament)
The 48 participating teams would play in four 12-team mini-tournaments. Within each mini-tournament, the 12 teams would be split into three groups of four (ensuring that each team plays at least three matches). The three group winners as well as the best second-placed team would play in the semi-finals and final (knockout stage). The winners of each mini-tournament would qualify for the final-four tournament (played in one of the locations that previously hosted a mini-tournament, on a rotation basis), which would consist of knockout-stage matches only: semi-finals, play-off for third place and final. The winners of the final-four tournament would be crowned champions of the relevant youth World Cup. Each 48-team tournament would therefore comprise a total of 88 matches.
Frequency: These tournaments would take place on an annual basis, which would mean a men’s and a women’s youth World Cup every year as a minimum.
Qualification pathway: A common theme throughout this paper, for both men’s and women’s youth competitions, is the inconsistency in the confederations’ qualification pathways (excluding UEFA’s) to the respective FIFA youth tournaments. To address this situation and achieve the goals of giving MAs more development and competitive opportunities, FIFA recommends implementing the following guidelines and minimum criteria to align the existing qualification confederation pathways for the new youth World Cups:
• Organisation of an annual qualification tournament aligned with the respective annual FIFA tournament;
• Delivery of one group-stage and one final tournament (depending on confederation size);
• No home-and-away match systems;
• A minimum of five matches for those teams qualifying from each confederation;
• A minimum of 50% of MAs participating in qualification tournaments in each respective confederation.
FINANCIAL HELP: In order to introduce the annual youth World Cups and establish minimum criteria for the confederation pathways, FIFA may need to provide further support in case confederations do not have sufficient capacity or resources to meet these enhanced requirements or the minimum criteria to align their qualification pathways. One approach could be giving each MA an additional amount for participating in the qualifiers, as well as extra funding for each organising MA. These amounts would be approved strictly upon participation in the qualification stage and would fall under the new cycle, FIFA Forward 3.0. An updated and more precise budget exercise would be conducted upon confirmation of the qualification pathways with the confederations.
QUALIFICATION PATHWAYS:
The proposed expansion of FIFA youth tournaments in terms of frequency (annual instead of biennial) and the potential increase in the number of participating teams would have a huge impact on the MAs’ talent development structures. So far, the MAs participating in all FIFA youth tournaments have prepared their national teams for eight World Cups within a FIFA cycle (two U-17 World Cups for boys and girls) and two U-20 World Cups (men and women). With the introduction of the proposed new concepts, this would increase considerably (12 tournaments in Proposal A, 20 tournaments in Proposal B)
Further financial resources would be needed at MA level to meet this increased demand, including additional resources for organisation (travel, team management, etc.) and for technical support (coaches, medical personnel, etc.). In addition, many MAs would need to optimise and expand their talent scouting and development structures to identify and nurture suitably talented players for the national teams and thus ensure the global competitiveness of the new youth competition structure. To assess and understand the scale of the needs and demands in this area, FIFA’s Technical Development Division conducted an 18-month global ecosystem analysis in 2020 and 2021 that provided a clear insight into the state of global talent development as well as an assessment of the individual landscapes of the 205 MAs that took part. This has created a clear picture of how each MA can be supported to reach its full potential through distinct talent pathways and by giving every individual talent a chance. FIFA will use the findings of this analysis to launch a Talent Development Scheme (TDS) that will provide each MA with the resources and structure needed to deliver a state-of-the-art and tailor-made talent development programme. This bespoke programme and guidance will be delivered by leading specialists in their respective talent development fields and foster the requisite long-term commitment and collaboration between FIFA and the MAs through to the end of the 2026 cycle.
NUMBER OF TOURNAMENTS - ANNUAL: FU17WC boys
and girls
FU20WC men
OR women (alternating)
One U-20 tournament and two youth World Cups. Each youth World Cup would consist of four 12-team mini-tournaments, followed by a final-four tournament (in total, eight mini-tournaments and two final-four tournaments every year).
NUMBER OF TEAMS:
FU17WC boys and girls – 48 teams
FU20WC men/women – 24 teams
In the current model, 96 boys’ teams and 64 girls’ teams participate in FIFA youth tournaments over a four-year period. The proposed model would see 240 boys’ teams and 240 girls’ teams playing in the same period.
NUMBER OF MATCHES - ANNUAL: FU17WC girls and boys – 176 matches (2 x 88)
FU20WC men/women – 52 matches TOTAL: 228 matches