FIFA will consider proposals to merge the U-17 and U-20 FIFA World Cups for both men and women into one competition with increased participation and regularity.
As it stands, the FIFA U-17 and U-20 competitions are played every 2 years with 24 teams for the men and 16 teams for the women’ editions.
FIFA will now consider merging the two competitions with the men’s tournament increased to 48 teams and the women’s to 24, to be played every year instead of biennially.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the idea will be debated and discussed further by FIFA and will come into effect from 2020 if approved.
“The idea would be to have an increased number of participants to 48 for the boys and 24 for the women. And instead of having an U-17 and an U-20, we would now have one age category competition which could be U-18 or an U-19 that will be played on an annual basis instead of every two years,” Gianni Infantino said at a press briefing after the FIFA Council meeting in Kolkata, India where the FIFA U-17 World Cup is currently taking place.
Infantino also revealed that FIFA will consider co-hosting for the proposed new format to give smaller associations the ability to still be able to bid for hosting rights.
“Of course with such high number of teams, we’re looking at co-hosting in order to give the possibility to smaller associations around the world to be able to host the competition together with others,” he said.
Spain and England are set to contest the FIFA U-17 World Cup final on Saturday.
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By: Fentuo Tahiru/citifmonline.com/Ghana