The days are gone now when the sports activities were limited to particular gender and age, as one’s capability can be revealed only through the skills, not by any other term. FIFA U- 17 Women’s World Cup is such an event that breaks the barriers of age and gender.
The 2020 FIFA U- 17 Women’s World Cup will be the 7th edition of the FIFA U- 17 Women’s World Cup and is the international women’s youth football championship contested by the under- 17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its establishment in 2008. Another amazing aspect about 2020 FIFA U- 17 Women’s World Cup is that it will be for the very first time hosted by India and will be held between 2 and 21 November 2020. Earlier, India hosted U- 17 Men’s World Cup in 2017.
FIFA announced on 25th July 2018 that the bidding process had begun for the U- 20 and U-17 Women’s World Cup. India was appointed as the host by the FIFA Council meeting at Miami on 15th March 2019. Even France had also expressed interest to host the tournament but India will get the chance to host. The host cities for the tournament are yet to be approved with FIFA inspecting five potential venues thus far.
Deciding dates came up as one of the issues which were discussed in a meeting of the Organizing Committee for the FIFA Competitions that was held in Zurich on 13th September 2019, Friday. “The OC confirmed that the competition will take place from 2nd to 21st November 2020. The host cities will be confirmed in due course.” said FIFA on its website. Whereas the director of the tournament, Roman Khanna had said on Friday that Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Goa, and Navi Mumbai are the five venues that were inspected by the FIFA team for the tournament and there are other cities as well who have showcased their interests.
A total of 16 teams qualify for the final tournament and as India is the host so it automatically gets qualified, 15 other teams qualify from six separate continental competitions. The U- 17 Women’s tournament began in 2008 when New Zealand hosted it and Spain is the current champion as they had beaten Mexico 2-1 in the final in Uruguay in 2018. It is said that Asian teams are the most successful in the tournament as North Korea won it twice in 2008 and 2016 respectively, Japan in 2014, South Korea in 2010. France and Spain are the only non-Asian teams to have won the tournament.
Talking about the Indian team, the Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) and Reliance Foundation also announced two initiatives for helping out India select its players for the World Cup. Basically, U- 17 Women’s tournament will be organized by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) which will provide an opportunity for the players to show their talent and will help the selectors for the selection for the Indian team. It is scheduled in mid-November and over 100 girls will participate in it.
We wish that the tournament goes well and we get the confirmed list of cities soon and hope that India will not only host the tournament well but also perform well.
