In 2003, after the inaugural success of the
2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, held in
Canada, FIFA proposed adding a second youth tournament for girls. Continental confederations told FIFA it would be difficult to create a second championship, with the age limits in place at the time. Therefore, FIFA created the U-17 Women's World Cup and the
U-20 Women's World Championship (renamed the "U-20 Women's World Cup" in 2007), the same age groups as its men's youth tournaments. Accordingly, the age limit for the U-19 championship was increased to 20, effective with the
2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship in
Russia. FIFA committed to creating a U-17 women's championship, stated to begin in 2008. The first tournament was held in 2008 in
New Zealand from 28 October to 16 November. Four cities hosted matches during the inaugural tournament –
North Shore City (
North Harbour Stadium),
Hamilton (
Waikato Stadium),
Wellington (
Wellington Stadium) and
Christchurch (
Queen Elizabeth II Park). New Zealand won hosting rights at the same time that
Chile received hosting honours for the
2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. On 4 April 2020, FIFA announced the decision of postponing the 2020 World Cup which was originally scheduled in five venues to be held from 2 to 21 November in India. The tournament was initially postponed to 2021, subject to further monitoring. On 17 November 2020, FIFA announced that the 2020 edition of the tournament would be cancelled, and India were appointed as hosts of the next edition of the tournament in
2022. However, on 16 August 2022, India were stripped of their hosting rights for 2022 as the
All India Football Federation was suspended by FIFA. The rights were given back to India on 26 August 2022 as the AIFF was reinstated by FIFA. Dominican Republic was selected as host for the 2024 edition on 23 June 2023. Starting from 2025 the U-17 Women's World Cup and its
men's counterpart are held annually. Morocco was selected on 14 March 2024 to host the 2025–2029 editions, becoming the first African country to stage the tournament. ==Qualification==