Under-17 World Cup will be held annually, says FIFA – 03/14/2024 – Sport

The FIFA U-17 World Cup will be held annually instead of every two years, with the next five editions from 2025 taking place in Qatar, world football’s governing body said on Thursday. (14).

Like the senior men’s World Cup, the under-17 tournament will be expanded to 48 teams, FIFA said.

The under-17 Women’s World Cup will also be contested annually from 2025, with Morocco hosting an expanded 24-team event until 2029. The 2022 edition featured 16 teams.

“This followed a global call for expressions of interest in hosting both competitions, with a focus on leveraging the use of existing football infrastructure for the efficiency and sustainability of the tournament,” FIFA said.

The last men’s under-17 World Cup was held in 2023, with Germany winning their first title. Spain won the women’s edition in 2022.

Qatar hosted the 2022 senior men’s World Cup in winter, while Morocco is one of the co-hosts of the 2030 edition.

FIFA also said that a record US$2.25 billion (R$11.2 billion) has been set aside for the 2023-2026 cycle for investment in football development.

“Thanks to its solid financial governance, FIFA is well on track to exceed its budget target of US$11 billion (R$54.7 billion) for the 2023-2026 cycle,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the meeting of the FIFA Council.

Infantino also called for stricter measures to combat racism. Last month he called for teams to face automatic defeat if their fans exhibited racist behavior.

“The 74th FIFA Congress will mark a milestone in FIFA’s ongoing efforts to combat racism with new and stricter measures to be applied across the world in cooperation with all our member associations and confederations,” Infantino added.