FIFA U-17 World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

Founded	1985; 36 years ago (1985)
Region	International (FIFA)
Number of teams	24 (finals)
Current champions	Brazil (4th title)
Most successful team(s)	Nigeria (5 titles)
Website	www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/
2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup

The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The current champion is Brazil, which won its fourth title at the 2019 tournament on home soil.

History

The FIFA U-17 World Cup is a competition that was inspired by the Lion City Cup that was created by the Football Association of Singapore in 1977. The Lion City Cup was the first under-16 football tournament in the world. Following FIFA's then secretary-general Sepp Blatter's recommendation after he was in Singapore for the 1982 Lion City Cup, FIFA created the FIFA U-16 World Championship.^[1]

The first edition was staged in 1985 in China,^[2] and tournaments have been played every two years since then. It began as a competition for players under the age of 16 with the age limit raised to 17 from the 1991 edition onwards. The most recent tournament was hosted by India, for the first time, in 2017, which became the most attended in the history of the tournament, with the total attendance of the FIFA U-17 World Cup reaching 1,347,133.^[3]

Nigeria is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, with five titles and three runners up. Brazil is the second-most successful with four titles and two runners-up. Ghana and Mexico have won the tournament twice.

A corresponding tournament for female players, the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, began in 2008, with North Korea winning the inaugural tournament.

Structure

Each tournament consists of a group phase, in which four teams play against one another and standings in the group table decide which teams advance, followed by a knockout phase of successive matches where the winning team advances through the competition and the losing team is eliminated. This continues until two teams remain to contest the final, which decides the tournament winner. The losing semi-finalists also contest a match to decide third place.

From 1985 to 2005 there were 16 teams in the competition, divided into four groups of four teams each in the group phase. Each team played the others in its group and the group winner and runner up qualified for the knockout phase. From 2007 the tournament was expanded to 24 teams, divided into six groups of four teams each. The top 2 places in each group plus the four best third-placed teams advanced to the knockout phase.

Competition matches are played in two 45-minute halves (i.e., 90 minutes in total). In the knockout phase, until the 2011 tournament, if tied at the end of 90 minutes an additional 30 minutes of extra time were played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if still tied. Starting with the 2011 tournament, the extra time period was eliminated to avoid player burnout, and all knockout games progress straight to penalties if tied at the end of 90 minutes.

Qualification

The host nation of each tournament qualifies automatically. The remaining teams qualify through competitions organised by the six regional confederations. For the first edition of the tournament in 1985, all of the teams from Europe plus Bolivia appeared by invitation of FIFA.

Results

FIFA U-16 World Championship

Edition	Year	Host		Final				Third place match				Number of Teams
				Champions	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
1	1985 Details	China		Nigeria	2–0	West Germany		Brazil	4–1	Guinea		16
2	1987 Details	Canada		Soviet Union	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)	Nigeria		Ivory Coast	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Italy		16
3	1989 Details	Scotland		Saudi Arabia	2–2 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)	Scotland		Portugal	3–0	Bahrain		16

FIFA U-17 World Championship

Edition	Year	Host		Final				Third place match				Number of Teams
				Champions	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
4	1991 Details	Italy		Ghana	1–0	Spain		Argentina	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–1 p)	Qatar		16
5	1993 Details	Japan		Nigeria	2–1	Ghana		Chile	1–1 (a.e.t.) (4–2 p)	Poland		16
6	1995 Details	Ecuador		Ghana	3–2	Brazil		Argentina	2–0	Oman		16
7	1997 Details	Egypt		Brazil	2–1	Ghana		Spain	2–1	Germany		16
8	1999 Details	New Zealand		Brazil	0–0 (a.e.t.) (8–7 p)	Australia		Ghana	2–0	United States		16
9	2001 Details	Trinidad and Tobago		France	3–0	Nigeria		Burkina Faso	2–0	Argentina		16
10	2003 Details	Finland		Brazil	1–0	Spain		Argentina	1–1 (a.e.t.) (5–4 p)	Colombia		16
11	2005 Details	Peru		Mexico	3–0	Brazil		Netherlands	2–1	Turkey		16

FIFA U-17 World Cup

Edition	Year	Host		Final				Third place match				Number of Teams
				Champions	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
12	2007 Details	South Korea		Nigeria	0–0 (a.e.t.) (3–0 p)	Spain		Germany	2–1	Ghana		24
13	2009 Details	Nigeria		Switzerland	1–0	Nigeria		Spain	1–0	Colombia		24
14	2011 Details	Mexico		Mexico	2–0	Uruguay		Germany	4–3	Brazil		24
15	2013 Details	United Arab Emirates		Nigeria	3–0	Mexico		Sweden	4–1	Argentina		24
16	2015 Details	Chile		Nigeria	2–0	Mali		Belgium	3–2	Mexico		24
17	2017 Details	India		England	5–2	Spain		Brazil	2–0	Mali		24
18	2019 Details	Brazil		Brazil	2–1	Mexico		France	4–1	Netherlands		24
—	2021 Details	Peru		Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic[4]								24
19	2023 Details	Peru										24

Notes:

• a.e.t. - after extra time
• p - match won on penalty shootout

Teams reaching the top four

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third place	Fourth place
Nigeria	5 (1985, 1993, 2007, 2013, 2015)	3 (1987, 2001, 2009)
Brazil	4 (1997, 1999, 2003, 2019)	2 (1995, 2005)	2 (1985, 2017)	1 (2011)
Ghana	2 (1991, 1995)	2 (1993, 1997)	1 (1999)	1 (2007)
Mexico	2 (2005, 2011)	2 (2013, 2019)		1 (2015)
France	1 (2001)		1 (2019)
Russia1	1 (1987)
Saudi Arabia	1 (1989)
Switzerland	1 (2009)
England	1 (2017)
Spain		4 (1991, 2003, 2007, 2017)	2 (1997, 2009)
Germany2		1 (1985)	2 (2007, 2011)	1 (1997)
Mali		1 (2015)		1 (2017)
Scotland		1 (1989)
Australia		1 (1999)
Uruguay		1 (2011)
Argentina			3 (1991, 1995, 2003)	2 (2001, 2013)
Netherlands			1 (2005)	1 (2019)
Ivory Coast			1 (1987)
Portugal			1 (1989)
Chile			1 (1993)
Burkina Faso			1 (2001)
Sweden			1 (2013)
Belgium			1 (2015)
Colombia				2 (2003, 2009)
Guinea				1 (1985)
Italy				1 (1987)
Bahrain				1 (1989)
Qatar				1 (1991)
Poland				1 (1993)
Oman				1 (1995)
United States				1 (1999)
Turkey				1 (2005)

¹includes results representing Soviet Union

²includes results representing West Germany

Performances by continental zones

Africa is the most successful continental zone with 7 tournament wins (5 for Nigeria, 2 for Ghana) and 6 times as runner up. Notably the 1993 final was contested by two African teams, when the final has been contested by two teams from the same confederation. The African teams repeated the 1993 final with Mali replacing Ghana (Disqualified for age violation) in 2015 when Nigeria and Mali made it to the last two standing and Nigeria got their sixth win.

South America has 3 tournament wins and has been runner up three times. Additionally Argentina has finished in third place on 3 occasions, Chile has done so on one occasion and Colombia has finished in fourth place twice, but neither of the latter two have ever appeared in the final.

Europe has 4 tournaments wins (1 each for France, USSR, Switzerland and England) and has been runner up 6 times. Spain has been runner up on 4 occasions. Additionally Portugal and Netherlands have won third-place medals in 1989 and 2005 respectively.

The CONCACAF zone has 2 tournament wins (for Mexico in 2005 and 2011), this confederation has reached the final four times (with Mexico).

Asia has 1 tournament win (for Saudi Arabia in 1989), the only time that a team from this confederation has reached the final and the only time an Asian team won a FIFA tournament in male category. (Australia was runner up in 1999 but at that time was in the Oceania Football Confederation).

Oceania has no tournament wins and 1 occasion as runner up (for Australia in 1999). Australia has since moved to the Asian confederation.

This tournament is peculiar in that the majority of titles have gone to teams from outside the strongest regional confederations (CONMEBOL and UEFA). Of the fifteen editions held so far, nine (60 percent of the total) have been won by teams from North and Central America, Africa and Asia.

Awards

The following awards are now presented:

• The Golden Boot is awarded to the top goalscorer of the tournament.
• The Golden Ball is awarded to the most valuable player of the tournament.
• The Golden Glove is awarded to the most valuable goalkeeper of the tournament.
• The Fair Play Award is presented to the team with the best disciplinary record in the tournament.

Tournament	Golden Ball	Golden Boot	Goals	Golden Glove	Fair Play
1985 China	William	Marcel Witeczek	8	Not Awarded	West Germany
1987 Canada	Philip Osundu	Moussa Traoré	5		Soviet Union
1989 Scotland	James Will	Fode Camara	3		Bahrain
1991 Italy	Nii Lamptey	Adriano	4		Argentina
1993 Japan	Daniel Addo	Wilson Oruma	6		Nigeria
1995 Ecuador	Mohammed Al-Kathiri	Daniel Allsopp	5		Brazil
1997 Egypt	Sergio Santamaría		7		Argentina
1999 New Zealand	Landon Donovan	Ishmael Addo	7		Mexico
2001 Trinidad and Tobago	Florent Sinama Pongolle	Florent Sinama Pongolle	9		Nigeria
2003 Finland	Cesc Fàbregas	Cesc Fàbregas	5		Costa Rica
2005 Peru	Anderson	Carlos Vela	5		North Korea
2007 South Korea	Toni Kroos	Macauley Chrisantus	7		Costa Rica
2009 Nigeria	Sani Emmanuel	Borja	5	Benjamin Siegrist	Nigeria
2011 Mexico	Julio Gómez	Souleymane Coulibaly	9	Jonathan Cubero	Japan
2013 United Arab Emirates	Kelechi Iheanacho	Valmir Berisha	7	Dele Alampasu	Nigeria
2015 Chile	Kelechi Nwakali	Victor Osimhen	10		Ecuador
2017 India	Phil Foden	Rhian Brewster	8	Gabriel Brazão	Brazil
2019 Brazil	Gabriel Veron	Sontje Hansen	6	Matheus Donelli	Ecuador
2021 Peru	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

Records and statistics

See also

• List of association football competitions
• National team appearances in the FIFA U-17 World Cup
• FIFA U-20 World Cup

References

External links

• Official website, FIFA.com (in English)
• RSSSF archive, RSSSF.com (in English)
• FIFA U17 WC, U-17FIFAWorldCup.com (in English)
• FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017, Sportswallah.com (in English)