Host country South Korea Venue(s) 6 (in 6 host cities) | Dates 20 May – 11 June 2017 | |
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Teams 24 (from 6 confederations) | ||
The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup will be the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The tournament will be hosted by South Korea between 20 May and 11 June 2017.
Contents
Along with Japan and Mexico, South Korea becomes the third nation to have hosted all of FIFA Men's international competitions, namely the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2001 Confederations Cup and the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The South Korean FA originally place a request of hosting the tournament away from the traditional June/July period, as it would clash with South Korea's rainy season, as well as any possible national team selection were they to qualify for the Confederations Cup.
Serbia, the 2015 champions, will not be able to defend their title as they failed to reach the final round of the UEFA qualifying tournament. In doing so, they became the fifth consecutive incumbent title holder to fail to qualify for the subsequent tournament.
Host selection
Along with asking member associations whether it wished to host the Under 20, Under 17 or the Beach Soccer World Cup in 2017 (along with Women's Tournaments a year previous), a declaration of interest would need to have been sent by 15 May 2013. A total of 12 countries submitted a bid to host the tournament by the May 2013 deadline:
The final decision on who would be hosts were made as part of FIFA's Executive Committee meetings in Brazil on 5 December 2013 with South Korea being awarded the hosting rights.
Qualified teams
A total of 24 teams qualify for the final tournament. In addition to South Korea who qualified automatically as hosts, the other 23 teams qualify from six separate continental competitions. Starting from 2017, the Oceania Football Confederation will receive an additional slot (in total two), while UEFA will have five instead of six slots.
Venues
Cheonan, Daejeon, Incheon, Seogwipo, Jeonju and Suwon were the six cities chosen to host the competition from a shortlist of nine, with Seoul, Pohang, Ulsan not chosen.
Organisation
Former South Korean internationals Ahn Jung-hwan and Park Ji-sung were appointed as the ambassadors of the tournament.
The official emblem, slogan ("Trigger the Fever") and look of the tournament were unveiled on 16 June 2016.
The official mascot, Chaormi, was unveiled on 25 August 2016.
Draw
The official draw will be held on 15 March 2017.
Group stage
The match schedule was announced by FIFA on 23 November 2015.
The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advance to the round of 16.
All times are local, KST (UTC+9).