An important decision by FIFA regarding the Youth World Cup and Qatar

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) announced on Thursday that the Under-17 World Cup will be held annually instead of every two years, with Qatar hosting the next five editions starting in 2025.

After the decision to increase the number of participating teams to 48 in the U-17 World Cup and organize it annually instead of every two years, it was confirmed that the next five editions of the tournament will be held in the Qatari capital, Doha, starting in 2025.

Meanwhile, Morocco will host the U-17 Women's World Cup, which has been expanded to 24 teams and will be held annually from 2025 until 2029.

FIFA stated: “This came after a global call for expressions of interest in hosting the two tournaments, and the focus was on benefiting from the use of football infrastructure that already exists for the sake of the efficiency and sustainability of the competitions.”

The last edition of the U-17 World Cup was held in 2023, and Germany won the U-17 World Cup for the first time in its history, after defeating France on penalty kicks 4-3, following a 2-2 draw in regular time on Saturday in the Indonesian city of Surakarta.

This is the first title for Germany, which reached the final of the inaugural 1985 edition and came third in 2007 and 2011 and fourth in 1997. As for France, it failed to add its second title after 2001 when it beat Nigeria 3-0.

Nigeria holds the record for the number of titles (5 out of 8 final matches) against Brazil (4 out of 6), and both Ghana and Mexico (2 out of 4), while Saudi Arabia achieved the best Arab result when it won the 1989 title in Scotland.