2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup

The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 17th FIFA U-17 World Cup, a biennial international football tournament contested by men’s under-17 national teams. Organized by FIFA, the tournament took place in India between 6 and 28 October 2017, after the country was awarded the hosting rights on 5 December 2013. The tournament marked the first time India have hosted a FIFA tournament and the first Asian country to host U-17 World Cup since United Arab Emirates in 2013. The attendance for this World Cup was a record 1,347,133 surpassing China’s record in 1985 with 1,230,976.

The matches were played in six stadiums in six host cities around the country, with the final taking place at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. Twenty-three teams, besides the host India, managed to qualify for the tournament via participating in their various continental under-17 tournaments. In the first round of the tournament finals, the teams competed in round-robin groups of four for points, where the top two teams in each group along with the top four third placed teams would advance to the next round. These 16 teams will advance to the knockout stage, where three rounds of play decided which teams would participate in the final.

The reigning champions, Nigeria, failed to qualify, becoming the first title holders fail to qualify for the subsequent edition since Switzerland in 2009.

England won the U-17 World Cup for the first time after coming back from a two-goal deficit and beating Spain 5–2 in the final. This made England the second nation, after Brazil in 2003, to win both of FIFA’s male age-capped (U-20 and U-17) World Cups in the same calendar year. England has also become the third country, after Brazil and North Korea, to win both U-17 and U-20 World Cup in their respective gender tournaments on the same year, as North Korea had also won both U-17 and U-20 Women’s World Cup the previous year. The official match ball used in the tournament was Adidas Krasava.

Host selection

The bids for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup had to be submitted by 15 November 2013. On 28 May 2013 it was announced by FIFA that Azerbaijan, India, Republic of Ireland, and Uzbekistan would bid for the hosting rights.

Finally, on 5 December 2013, FIFA announced that India had won the 2017 FIFA World Cup hosting rights.

Qualified teams

As host, India made their first ever appearance at the FIFA U-17 World Cup and their first appearance in the World Cup at any age level. As well as India, New Caledonia and Niger also made their first appearance in the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The previous U-17 World Cup title holders, Nigeria, failed to qualify for this edition. In failing to qualify, Nigeria became the first nation since Switzerland in 2009 to fail to qualify for the next edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup after winning the previous edition.

A total of 24 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to India, the other 23 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. Starting from 2017, the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) will receive an additional spot (in total two spots), while UEFA will have five instead of six spots.

Confederation	Qualifying Tournament	Qualifier(s)
AFC (Asia)	Host Nation	India1
	2016 AFC U-16 Championship	Iraq  Iran  Japan  North Korea
CAF (Africa)	2017 Africa U-17 Cup of Nations	Ghana  Guinea  Mali  Niger1
CONCACAF (Central, North America and Caribbean)	2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship	Costa Rica  Honduras  Mexico  United States
CONMEBOL (South America)	2017 South American Under-17 Championship	Brazil  Chile  Colombia  Paraguay
OFC (Oceania)	2017 OFC U-17 Championship	New Caledonia1  New Zealand
UEFA (Europe)	2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship	England  France  Germany  Spain  Turkey

1.^ Teams that will make their debut.

Organization

Preparation

The six venues selected for the tournament were given major renovations prior to the FIFA U-17 World Cup. All the stadiums were given new bucket seats, new dressing rooms, new evacuation exits for fans, and new training grounds. Javier Ceppi, the Local Organising Committee director, stated that despite work starting slowly, things eventually became quicker. “It has been a long process in the last two and half years. In India, it takes time to start things but once things start it kind of picks its own pace and in terms of implementation I always say that India is a very good country when it comes to implementation.”

Emblem

The official emblem for the tournament was launched on 27 September 2016 at a hotel in Goa during the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship. According to the press release from FIFA the emblem was designed “as a celebration of the country’s richness and diversity of cultures, with the main elements of the Indian Ocean, the banyan tree, the kite and the starburst, which is an interpretation of the Ashoka Chakra, an integral part of the national identity.”

Tickets

Sales of tickets for the FIFA U-17 World Cup began on 16 May 2017 during a function in New Delhi. Carles Puyol was present during the ticket sales launch as special guest. General ticket sales officially began on 17 May 2017 at 19:11. The time was selected as a tribute to when Mohun Bagan defeated East Yorkshire Regiment in the IFA Shield in 1911, marking the first time an Indian football club defeated a British side in British India. Tickets for the tournament were sold in four phases: Phase one only sold tickets for categories 1 to 3 at each venue with a 60% discount while phase two allowed people to buy tickets for all categories, but only if you are a Visa card holder, at a 50% discount. Phase three allowed anyone to buy tickets with a 25% discount while phase four had tickets at full price. The attendance for matches breached the million mark in the final match of the Round of 16, which made India only the third nation after China and Mexico to register an attendance of over a million for the event. On 28 October 2017, in the 3rd place match-up between Brazil and Mali, India finally beat the existing record of 1,230,976 set in the 1985 FIFA U-16 World Championship edition in China The final attendance figures were 1,347,133.

Mascot

The mascot is ” Kheleo” , an Himalayan Clouded Leopard,which is an endangered wild cat from the Himalayas. It wears an jersey with the colours of white, yellow, green and orange. Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Vijay Goel,said that ” Kheleo is young,vibrant , enthustiatic and a perfect representation of our country.He will help us to involve kids in football in a fun way”.

Theme Song

The Theme Song for the 2017 U17 World Cup is called ‘Kar Ke Dikhla De Goal’ (कर के दिखला दे गोआल) which roughly translates to ‘Show that you can score a goal’, features Indian football legend Bhaichung Bhutia along with Kerala Blasters co-owner Sachin Tendulkar and singer Babul Supriyo, who had designed the Mohun Bagan kit half a decade back.

Venues

After being awarded the hosting rights for the FIFA U-17 World Cup, eight locations were shortlisted: Bangalore, Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Margao, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune. On 29 May 2015, Kochi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Guwahati were provisionally selected as host locations and was informed two more would be provisionally approved from the list of Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, New Delhi and Pune. On 27 October 2016, FIFA officially announced Guwahati, Kochi, Kolkata, Margao, Navi Mumbai and New Delhi as the official host cities for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.

 

Kolkata	Kochi	New Delhi
Salt Lake Stadium (Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan)	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium)	Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
Capacity: 66,600	Capacity: 41,700	Capacity: 58,000
Navi Mumbai New Delhi Kolkata Kochi Margao Guwahati 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup (India)
Navi Mumbai	Guwahati	Margao
DY Patil Stadium (Dr. DY Patil Stadium)	Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium	Fatorda Stadium (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium)
Capacity: 41,000	Capacity: 23,800	Capacity: 16,200

 

Draw

The draw for the FIFA U-17 World Cup was held on 7 July 2017 in Mumbai. The draw was attended by former U-17 World Cup champions Nwankwo Kanu (Nigeria) and former U-20 World Cup champions Esteban Cambiasso (Argentina), as well as India senior international Sunil Chhetri and badminton player P. V. Sindhu.

The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with hosts India being allocated to position A1. The rest of the teams were allocated into their respective pots based on a ranking which was built according to past performances during the last five FIFA U-17 World Cups. Importance was given to the most recent U-17 World Cups.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
India  Mexico  Brazil  Germany  Mali  France	Spain  Japan  New Zealand  England  Iran  United States	Costa Rica  North Korea  Honduras  Iraq  Turkey  Colombia	Chile  Paraguay  Ghana  Guinea  Niger  New Caledonia

Referees

FIFA’s Referees’ Committee selected 21 referees, representing all six confederations, to officiate at the U-17 World Cup: Seven from UEFA, four from CONMEBOL, three each from the AFC, CAF, and CONCACAF, and one from the OFC. Interestingly, no referee from host country India were selected to officiate.

Confederation	Referee	Assistant referees	Support referee
AFC	Muhammad Taqi	Lee Tzu Liang  Koh Min Kiat	Ri Hyang-ok
	Ryuji Sato	Toru Sagara  Hiroshi Yamauchi
	Nawaf Shukralla	Yaser Tulefat  Ebrahim Saleh
CAF	Mehdi Abid Charef	Albdelhak Etchiali  Anouar Hmila	Gladys Lengwe
	Hamada Nampiandraza	Arsenio Marengula  Yahaya Mahamadou
	Bamlak Tessema Weyesa	Olivier Safari  Mark Ssonko
CONCACAF	Jair Marrufo	Frank Anderson  Corey Rockwell	Carol Chenard
	Ricardo Montero	Octavio Jara  Juan Carlos Mora
	John Pitti	Gabriel Victoria  Christian Ramírez
CONMEBOL	José Argote	Luis Murillo  Carlos López	Claudia Umpierrez
	Enrique Cáceres	Eduardo Cardozo  Juan Zorrilla
	Sandro Ricci	Emerson de Carvalho  Marcelo Van Gasse
	Gery Vargas	Juan Pablo Montaño  Jose Alberto Antelo
OFC	Abdelkader Zitouni	Folio Moeaki  Bernard Mutukera	Anna-Marie Keighley
UEFA	Ovidiu Hațegan	Octavian Șovre  Sebastian Gheorghe	Kateryna Monzul  Esther Staubli
	Bobby Madden	David McGeachie  Alastair Mather
	Anastasios Sidiropoulos	Polychronis Kostaras  Lazaros Dimitriadis
	Artur Soares Dias	Rui Tavares  Paulo Soares
	Anthony Taylor	Gary Beswick  Adam Nunn
	Clément Turpin	Nicolas Danos  Cyril Gringore
	Slavko Vinčić	Tomaz Klancnik  Andraz Kovacic

Squads

Each team’s squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup consisted of 21 players. Each participating national association had to confirm their final 21-player squad by 21 September 2017. A total of 504 players participated in the tournament. The squads were announced by FIFA on 26 September 2017.

Group stage

The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.

All times are local, IST (UTC+5:30).

Tiebreakers

The rankings of teams in each group are determined as follows (regulations Article 17.7):

If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ghana	3	2	0	1	5	1	+4	6	Knockout stage
2	Colombia	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6
3	United States	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6
4	India (H)	3	0	0	3	1	9	−8	0

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Paraguay	3	3	0	0	10	5	+5	9	Knockout stage
2	Mali	3	2	0	1	8	4	+4	6
3	New Zealand	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1
4	Turkey	3	0	1	2	2	7	−5	1

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	0	10	1	+9	9	Knockout stage
2	Germany	3	2	0	1	5	6	−1	6
3	Guinea	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1
4	Costa Rica	3	0	1	2	3	7	−4	1

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	3	3	0	0	6	1	+5	9	Knockout stage
2	Spain	3	2	0	1	7	2	+5	6
3	Niger	3	1	0	2	1	6	−5	3
4	North Korea	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

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Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	France	3	3	0	0	14	3	+11	9	Knockout stage
2	Japan	3	1	1	1	8	4	+4	4
3	Honduras	3	1	0	2	7	11	−4	3
4	New Caledonia	3	0	1	2	2	13	−11	1

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Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	England	3	3	0	0	11	2	+9	9	Knockout stage
2	Iraq	3	1	1	1	4	5	−1	4
3	Mexico	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
4	Chile	3	0	1	2	0	7	−7	1

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Ranking of third-placed teams

The four best teams among those ranked third are determined as follows (regulations Article 17.7):

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	A	United States	3	2	0	1	5	3	+2	6	Knockout stage
2	E	Honduras	3	1	0	2	7	11	−4	3
3	D	Niger	3	1	0	2	1	6	−5	3
4	F	Mexico	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
5	B	New Zealand	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1
6	C	Guinea	3	0	1	2	4	8	−4	1

Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. However, for the third place match, no extra time was played and the winner was determined by kicks from the penalty mark.

In the round of 16, the four third-placed teams were matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D. The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depend on which four third-placed teams qualified for the round of 16:

Third-placed teams qualify from groups							1A vs	1B vs	1C vs	1D vs
A	B	C	D				3C	3D	3A	3B
A	B	C		E			3C	3A	3B	3E
A	B	C			F		3C	3A	3B	3F
A	B		D	E			3D	3A	3B	3E
A	B		D		F		3D	3A	3B	3F
A	B			E	F		3E	3A	3B	3F
A		C	D	E			3C	3D	3A	3E
A		C	D		F		3C	3D	3A	3F
A		C		E	F		3C	3A	3F	3E
A			D	E	F		3D	3A	3F	3E
	B	C	D	E			3C	3D	3B	3E
	B	C	D		F		3C	3D	3B	3F
	B	C		E	F		3E	3C	3B	3F
	B		D	E	F		3E	3D	3B	3F
		C	D	E	F		3C	3D	3F	3E

Bracket

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

16 October — New Delhi

Colombia

0

22 October — Kolkata

Germany

4

Germany

1

18 October — Kochi

Brazil

2

Brazil

3

25 October — Kolkata

Honduras

0

Brazil

1

16 October — New Delhi

England

3

Paraguay

0

21 October — Margao

United States

5

United States

1

17 October — Kolkata

England

4

England (pen.)

0 (5)

28 October — Kolkata

Japan

0 (3)

England

5

17 October — Margao

Spain

2

Mali

5

21 October — Guwahati

Iraq

1

Mali

2

18 October — Navi Mumbai

Ghana

1

Ghana

2

25 October — Navi Mumbai

Niger

0

Mali

1

17 October — Guwahati

Spain

3

Third place play-off

France

1

22 October — Kochi

28 October — Kolkata

Spain

2

Spain

3

Brazil

2

17 October — Margao

Iran

1

Mali

0

Iran

2

Mexico

1

Round of 16

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Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. They were all sponsored by Adidas, except for the FIFA Fair Play Award.

Golden Ball	Silver Ball	Bronze Ball
Phil Foden	Sergio Gomez	Rhian Brewster
Golden Boot	Silver Boot	Bronze Boot
Rhian Brewster (8 goals, 1 assist, 540 minutes played)	Lassana N’Diaye (6 goals, 0 assists, 603 minutes played)	Abel Ruiz (6 goals, 0 assists, 618 minutes played)
Golden Glove
Gabriel Brazão
FIFA Fair Play Award
Brazil

Goalscorers

8 goals

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

2 own goals

Source: FIFA

Broadcasting

FIFA released the media licensing rights for the U-17 World Cup on 21 September 2017. In India, the official broadcaster is Sony TEN and Sony ESPN. In the United States, the tournament is being broadcast on Fox Sports 2 while the United Kingdom has the tournament broadcast on Eurosport.

Legacy

The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was regarded as a success by the media, FIFA and the tournament organisers. Jaime Yarza, Head of FIFA Tournaments, said, “It’s been a fantastic tournament with an overwhelming response of everybody involved. First and foremost, the fans have filled the stadiums in all the matches, showing fair play and respect, cheering on all the teams, and really loving the football they have seen. The figures speak for themselves: more than 1.2 million fans attended games at the stadiums. By the final matchday, we’re probably going to break the record of all the other U-17 World Cups and we might even break the record for the U-20 World Cup, which is an amazing achievement. It really shows that India is a footballing nation in every sense. The hard work put in place during so many years has received a great response from everybody. It has been a very proud moment for all of us.”

The tournament was the most attended and highest scoring edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in history. It was also the highest attended men’s age-group World Cup ever, surpassing the attendance record of the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The attendance for this World Cup was a record 1,347,133 surpassing China’s 1985 edition where it was 1,230,976, and the 2011 U-20 World Cup in Colombia which was attended by 1,309,929 people.

The 177 goals scored during the tournament made it the highest scoring U-17 World Cup in history, surpassing the previous record of 172 during the 2013 edition in the United Arab Emirates. The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup also recorded the highest goal average of 3.40 per match since the tournament format was expanded from 16 teams to 24 teams in 2007.

In September 2017, India submitted a bid to host the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, but lost to Poland. India was selected to host the 2020 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup by the FIFA Council on 15 March 2019.