2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup

Starting with this edition, the FIFA U-17 World Cup featured a number of changes to its format adopted during 2023. These changes stemmed from a proposal submitted by the Liberia Football Association at the 71st FIFA Congress held virtually on 21 May 2021, regarding FIFA's youth tournaments. FIFA initiated a consultative process among its member associations before publishing a report by the FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger, which included an annual 48-team U-17 World Cup. Over the following months these proposals continued to be evaluated and analysed until they were approved by the FIFA Council in October 2023, and then confirmed on 14 March 2024. ==Host selection==

On 15 November 2023, FIFA launched a global call for expressions of interest from member associations to host the next five editions of the U17 World Cup (2025–2029) as a single consolidated package. Member associations had to express their interest no later than 4 December 2023. After a FIFA Council meeting held on 14 March 2024, it was announced that Qatar would host the next five editions of the U-17 World Cup (2025–2029), as part of the new annual cycle implemented by FIFA for the tournament. This was the first time that Qatar hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the third time that the tournament was held in the Arab world. Controversies Although FIFA did not disclose whether there were other interested member associations, a joint bid by Indonesia and Singapore and another by Denmark were known to have been submitted. This joined previous controversies regarding Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, such as violations of the human rights of migrant workers and FIFA's ban on the Danish football team training with pro-human rights shirts. In 2024, Amnesty International criticized FIFA and Qatar for not yet addressing the "severe" human rights violations surrounding the hosting of the 2022 World Cup, claiming that they are not taking responsibility for "the vast number of migrant workers who were exploited and in many cases died to make the 2022 World Cup possible". In 2025, Amnesty reported that "the Qatari authorities continued to fail to investigate effectively the deaths of migrant workers and to hold employers or authorities accountable, preventing any assessment of whether the deaths were work-related and depriving families of the opportunity to receive compensation." Also in 2025, Human Rights Watch stated that despite scrutiny regarding migrant worker deaths building up to the tournament, Qatar "has failed to prevent, investigate, or compensate" for the deaths of thousands of them. ==Venues==

The host venues were announced by FIFA on 22 May 2025. All matches were held in the city of Al Rayyan inside the "Aspire Zone" sport complex. The final took place at the Khalifa International Stadium, which was also in the Aspire Zone. The eight pitches used were named after eight former Qatar national football team players; Mohammed Ghanim (pitch 1), Ibrahim Khalfan (pitch 2), Badr Bilal (pitch 3), Khalid Salman (pitch 4), Khaled Ballan (pitch 5), Mansour Muftah (pitch 7), Mahmoud Soufi (pitch 8), and Adel Ahmed Malalla (pitch 9). Only Soufi and Ballan had died before the tournament started. }} ==Teams==

Qualification A total of 48 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Qatar, who qualified automatically as the host nation, the other 47 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. The new expanded slot allocation per confederation was approved by the FIFA Council meeting held on 15 May 2024: • AFC (Asia): 9 (including the hosts Qatar) • CAF (Africa): 10 • CONCACAF (North America, Central America and the Caribbean): 8 • CONMEBOL (South America): 7 • OFC (Oceania): 3 • UEFA (Europe): 11 El Salvador, Fiji, Republic of Ireland, Uganda and Zambia made their debut in the tournament. Uganda made their first appearance in a FIFA tournament. Bolivia qualified for its first U-17 World Cup since 1987 and to any FIFA tournament for the first time since the 1994 FIFA World Cup. After hosting the 2023 edition, Indonesia qualified by merit to a FIFA U-17 World Cup and any FIFA tournament for the first time. Switzerland qualified for only the second time ever, their first return to the U-17 World Cup since winning it in 2009. Ecuador, Iran, Poland and Spain failed to qualify having appeared at the 2023 edition. Record champions Nigeria did not qualify for the second consecutive tournament. Squads Seeding The 48 teams were drawn into twelve groups of four teams. The hosts Qatar were automatically seeded to Pot 1 and into the first position of Group A, while the remaining teams were seeded into pots based on their results in the last five FIFA U-17 World Cups (with more recent tournaments weighted more heavily, using a points-based ranking system as outlined by FIFA). Draw The draw took place on 25 May 2025 in Doha, Qatar. The draw began with teams from pot one being drawn first and placed in the first position of their groups (hosts Qatar automatically assigned to A1). The draw then proceeded with teams from pot 2, followed by pot 3 and pot 4, with each team drawn into one of the positions within their group. No group could contain more than one team from the same confederation. ==Match officials==

On 21 August 2025, FIFA confirmed that 81 match officials from 35 member associations would be selected for the tournament. This included 27 referees and 54 assistant referees. Football video support was in use for the competition. ==Group stage==

Tiebreakers Group A ---- ---- Group B ---- ---- Group C ---- ---- Group D ---- ---- Group E ---- ---- Group F ---- ---- Group G ---- ---- Group H ---- ---- Group I ---- ---- Group J ---- ---- Group K ---- ---- Group L ---- ---- Ranking of third-placed teams == Knockout stage ==

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, no extra time was played and the winners were determined by penalty shoot-out. Based on the ranking of group winners, runners-up and third-placed teams, FIFA confirmed the round of 32 fixtures as follows: Bracket Round of 32 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Round of 16 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Quarter-finals ---- ---- ---- Semi-finals ---- 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 Trophy. ==Goalscorers==

Emblem The official emblem was revealed on 12 May 2025. Theme song On 31 October 2025, FIFA revealed the official song titled "'''TMRW'S GOAT'''" (short for "Tomorrow's GOAT") sung by duo Nour from Egypt and Yarden from Nigeria. Mascot On 30 October 2025, a desert owl-shaped mascot named "Boma" was revealed. The name means the animal type in Arabic. Boma's personality is a tribute to Bora Milutinović. Boma represents experience, intelligence and the vision for the future. == See also ==