U17 World Cup 2023

Congrats Germany, hard luck France. Germany's hero on the night was goalkeeper Konstantin Heide... does that mean he will always be playing youth soccer as he's a "constant-teen"?

 

It is a shame that Prestianni and Domenech did not play. Also, Placente couldn't find a way to fit both Mastuonto and Echeverri on the same pitch, and that's understandable because it is like a Riquelme/Aimar situation.

 

IDK if I've ever seen Germany lose on penalties before. They are so mentally strong in these moments.

 

2016 Olympic final against Brazil. I think that is the only one on any level since the 1970s, though I do not follow all the U-whatever tournaments in Europe.

 

That's fair. I just remember the stereotype that England had never won a shootout until Colombia and Germany seldom loses.

 

Singapore / Malaysia I completely get as you drive from one to the other, but don't see why Indonesia don't just host on their own.

 

Ha ha I was about to post that too! And if they go on another deep run like they did to the latter stages, you'll see a lot of Singapore

 

Next five editions in Qatar:
https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/org...key-decisions-ahead-of-the-74th-fifa-congress

Strikes me as a bit much. How about two years to the same host, like the CWC once upon a time?

 

Nah great decision I say






.... unless of course you don't live in Qatar not so great...

 

FIFA are so out of touch with football fans and, well, everything really. Even in that short article they write about all the money FIFA are receiving alongside a picture of their President's ugly mug laughing right into the camera. Looks like Dr. Evil! lol wtf?

 

This is how you disguise 3 consecutive biannual tournaments for the same country, and 4 consecutive biannual ones for the same confederation.

Looking beyond FIFA's favoritism with QAT+AFC, qualifiers calendars will need a revamp:
- Due to confed size, 4 of 6 confeds defined WC participants across 6+ months, where CAF uses a 11-month calendar.
- Same 4 confeds ran extended qualifiers across months that will be blocked by u17WC.

Qualifiers length per confed:
- AFC (Oct 2022 - Jul 2023; 27 actual days: 9 prelim + 18 final)
- CAF (Jun 2022 - May 2023; 243 actual: 222 prelim + 21 final)
- CONCACAF (Aug 2022 - Feb 2023; 26 actual: 10 prelim + 16 final)
- CONMEBOL (Mar 2022 - Apr 2023; 25 actual: 25 final)
- OFC (Jan 2023; 18 actual: 18 final)
- UEFA (Oct 2022 - Jun 2023; 88 actual: 49 prelim1 + 22 prelim2 + 17 final)

It is uncertain whether this will be detrimental to CAF. The potential to streamline its youth qualifier calendar is there.

 

The world youth calendar will have no space/funds for intercontinental playoffs, so OFC will retain two u17WC slots.

FIFA can certainly improve u17WC quality by reassigning OFC slot #2. It was awarded to OFC since the 2017 edition, taking UEFA allocation from 6 to 5.

Ever since, OFC slot #2 took home the worst goal differential at the world stage:
2017 (-11), 2019 (-20), 2021/pandemic, 2023 (-24).

Maybe FIFA prefers OFC cannon fodder in u17WC, to effective growth of youth football.

 

Perhaps I am missing something, but since the tournament is doubling in size from 24 to 48 teams, I don't think any region will be seeing a reduction in their allocation. They might just go with the same allocation as the FIFA (senior) World Cup (with the 2 playoff spots going to OFC and the host - AFC).

 

These youth tournament were a bit of a joke already, now they are a complete farce.

Its my understanding that there is no real enforcement for youth players to be released by clubs. Further, the players that did compete weren't always the true "best world youth talent" bc some countries' stars tend to shine brighter when they are young, and the big clubs that invest in the players wouldn't want to release them for kiddie tourneys.

Further, you have to think of the young player. A true blue chip talent might start to fighting for minutes in their clubs, which if they shine, it will get them paid. But if the young player tells their manager that they need to be released for the youth NT, adios minutes with the club's senior team.

 

I don't know what the stats say, but what you say seems to apply more to the U20 world cup than the U17 one. Are there really so many under-17 kids that big clubs already depend on heavily such that they can't release them for a few weeks to gain valuable experience?

 

Not many, however if you are getting minutes in a good professional league at 16/17 years of age you will probably benefit more from that than a youth tournament. If your only playing at under 18 level then I think the tournament is of more value.

 

Even the players U-17 who are not getting minutes with their senior club team, have roles to play in the youth club. And those players don't want to upset the club. That's why so many of the countries that have the talent to win the senior WC, don't really feature that well in the youth tournaments and vice versa - because their talents are being developed.

The youth tournaments in general are a water-down version of the true talents from some nations. And now adding so many more games/and cycles, its only going to water down the product even more.

 

Let us hope that senior WC allocations are not replicated in youth football. As more second-string UEFA sides will show up for the sake of competing.

Senior allocations in a youth tournament will be embarrassing as well. Youth WCs were created to encourage growth of the sport outside of UEFA.

Comparison of direct WC slots, 23 youth vs 45 senior:

AFC 4 vs 8 (+4 or 100% gain)
CAF 4 vs 9 (+5 or 125% gain)
CCAF 4 vs 5 (+1 or 25% gain)
CBOL 4 vs 6 (+2 or 50% gain)
OFC 2 vs 1 (-1 or 50% loss)
UEFA 5 vs 16 (+11 or 220% gain)

 

I'm comfortable with representation being on an equal basis between confederations. Obviously some small adjustments need to be made because two of the confederations have small numbers, and one of them is relatively weak. Here is my proposal breaking the world up into roughly 4 groups

UEFA 55 members
CAF 54 members (52 FIFA affiliated)
AFC 47 members (46 FIFA affiliated)
CONCACAF 41 members (35 FIFA affiliated)
OFC 13 members (11 FIFA affiliated)
CONMEBOL 10

I would allocate 12 spots to UEFA, 12 to CAF, 12 between AFC and OFC and 12 to the American confederations. These groupings have between 45 and 57 FIFA members in the group. I'm not advocating combined qualifications, just a breakup of the 12 spots between the confederations grouped together. They could have a playoff for the last spot between them if desired.

This gives me

UEFA 12
CAF 12
AFC 9 + 1
OFC 2 + 1
CONCACAF 6 + 1
CONMEBOL 5 + 1

Host spot comes out of allocation although if we are going to have hosts 5 years in a row I would make them qualify for the last 4 tournaments.

 

Maybe you are thinking of the U20 WC? In the last U17, four of the group winners came from UEFA, plus both finalists. Similar success in the U17 WC before that one. So I don't think those were second-string UEFA sides. Or if they were, the ROW has problems.

But yeah, 16 spots for UEFA is probably a bit much. Maybe 12-13 would be fair.