It was already known that the U-17 World Cup will be held in Qatar in 2025. What is new is that the junior tournament will be held annually in the emirate until 2029
In December, the German U-17s won the world title against France in Indonesia. At the next event in 2025, the DFB juniors will therefore compete as defending champions – in Qatar. The FIFA Council decided in a virtual meeting on Thursday that the U-17 World Cup will also be held in Qatar every year until 2029. The U-17 World Cup will be hosted by Morocco for the next five years from 2025.
Previously, both tournaments had been held every two years. The decision to play the U-17 World Cup annually from 2025 and to increase the number of teams from 24 to 48 was announced by FIFA last year. In future, 24 nations will take part in the U-17 Junior Women’s World Cup
“Existing soccer infrastructure” decisive
According to FIFA, the focus when selecting the hosts was “on using the existing soccer infrastructure in the interests of tournament efficiency and sustainability”. As the German representative, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf is a member of the Council of the world governing body.
Qatar, which has been criticized for human rights violations among other things, hosted the 2022 Men’s World Cup.
