Morocco has been awarded multi-year hosting rights by the FIFA Council to organize the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the new annual, expanded tournament every year between 2025 and 2029. This makes them the first African nation to host the event.
The FIFA President, Gianni Infantino announced his intention to make the FIFA U-17 World Cups for both men and women an annual event last year, while also expanding both of them to 48 and 24 teams respectively.
This event aims to give young talents the best opportunity to perform and compete against each other on a global scale. To be further innovative, the tournament will now be held in a particular country over five years. Morocco, which will host its second successive Women’s Africa Cup of Nations this year, joins upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup organizers Qatar as the first FIFA Member Associations to be multi-year host nations.
Mr. Infantino, while referring to Morocco’s women’s national team reaching the knockout stages of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 on their tournament debut, stated, “Football in Morocco has gone from strength to strength in recent years. While the men’s team reached the last four at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the women’s team have made such impressive strides, thanks to the support of the government and the Moroccan Football Association, and the talent of the players.” He further stated, “I believe hosting the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup over five years will inspire so many more girls and boys to take up football in the country, and as it is the first time the tournament comes to Africa, that inspiration will spread tight across the continent”
Even though the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which featured eight debutant nations after being expanded to 32 teams, showed more competing countries do not dilute the quality of football on the pitch, multi-year hosting rights aim to give countries the chance to build solid organizational foundations for tournaments.
This new strategy will mold the FIFA U-17 World Cups of the future, which will shift them from a stadium-based model to being a festival of football. While each year’s tournament will be unique, organizational structures and tournament infrastructure – which includes football technology and broadcast set-ups to transport and accommodation – will remain in place, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Important learnings from each edition will ensure improved delivery of the tournament year by year.
With the FIFA World Cup 2030™ set to be co-hosted by Morocco, along with the European neighbors Spain and Portugal, subject to the completion of a successful bidding process conducted by FIFA and a decision by the FIFA Congress in May, the five-year build-up to that tournament will now see football fans and officials mobilized annually by another major FIFA competition.
