The 74th FIFA Congress being held in Thailand confirmed the previous FIFA decision to announce the expansion of the U17 men's and women's World Cup on the agenda on the 15th. This is expected to have an unprecedented positive impact on the future development of Chinese football.
Back in March, FIFA said they planned to change the U17 Men's and Women's World Cup to an annual tournament from 2025, and expand the U17 Men's World Cup finals from 24 to 48 teams. The U17 Women's World Cup finals have been expanded from 16 to 24 teams, and the number of Asian qualifiers has increased from three to four. From 2025 to 2029, the U17 Men's and Women's World Cup will be held every year, of which the U17 Men's World Cup will be hosted by Qatar and the U17 Women's World Cup will be hosted by Morocco.
On the 15th, the agenda of the congress confirmed this expansion plan. And at the same time, it was confirmed for the first time: the number of places for Asia to participate in the men's U17 World Cup has surged from the current 4 to 9 (including 1 quota place for the host Qatar)!
The U17 Men's and Women's World Cup is undoubtedly great news for the Chinese U17 men's and women's national football teams that urgently need to participate in the World Series experience. In particular, the Chinese U17 men's national junior football team, which has not participated in 9 consecutive U17 Men's World Cups since 2005, really sees the possibility of returning to the U17 World Cup finals, so that our players can get the experience of the World Series at the beginning (pre) stage of their careers.
China's youth football has made some progress in recent years, and the foundation and strength of youth training have improved compared with before. However, there is still a big gap with the top Asian team, and it is inevitable to enter the U17 World Cup with the top 4 results in Asia. However, starting in 2025, the number of qualifying places in the Asian zone of the U17 Men's World Cup will increase to 9, which means that the Chinese team only needs to qualify for the top 8 in the U17 Asian Cup to be sure to enter the U17 Men's World Cup.
The Chinese U17 men's football team has missed the U17 Asian Cup finals for two consecutive years (2016 and 2018), and finally entered the U17 Asian Cup again after 9 years last year, which can be regarded as the darkest period of the Chinese men's football team in the U17 age group. Although 1 draw and 2 losses failed to qualify in the group stage last year, at least the fans have seen hope.
The 2025-2029 U17 World Cup will be held once a year, which means that the Asian qualifiers will also be held once a year. Not surprisingly, the two-stage qualifiers in Asia will be completed within half a year, which greatly increases the opportunity for the U17 national junior team, which has long lacked experience in official international competitions. At the same time, there are Asian and world competitions in the U17 age group every year, which can cover all ages of youth players' experience in the competition, and the problem of young players in the non-Olympic age group and the national sports age group not being paid attention to in the past has been fundamentally solved.
The expansion of the U17 Men's World Cup starting in 2025 will directly benefit the young players who have been born since 2008.
Entering 2024, the U16 national junior team in the "08" age group and the U15 national junior team in the "09" age group have gone overseas for training. Regardless of the results, at least people see the benefits of playing more games. The "08" age group U16 national junior team won the U15 East Asian Cup championship in September last year, although Japan and South Korea are not the strongest team to participate, but the overall longitudinal comparison of performance has been greatly improved. After nearly 20 years of trough, the "08" age group national junior team may be regarded as a watershed for Chinese football to bottom out from the youth level.
The national youth team in the age group of "08" and later has not only significantly improved the selection base compared with the past, but also ushered in the opportunity of the U17 World Cup expansion. After all, getting the top 9 results in Asia and entering the World Cup finals, the national football team in the U17 age group is easier than the senior national football team. The last time the U17 national junior team entered the U17 World Cup was in 2005, and if it can enter the U17 World Cup finals again in the next five years, it will bring a strong incentive effect to the campus football and football youth training system that Chinese football is fully developing.
The expansion of the U17 World Cup can also benefit the talent training of the Chinese women's football team. The Chinese women's football team has fallen into a trough in recent years, and the lack of green and yellow is the main reason. Since 2008, there have been 7 U17 Women's World Cups, and the Chinese U17 women's football team has only participated in 3 (2012, 2014 and 2022). Since 2008, there have only been three qualifying places for the U17 Women's World Cup in Asia. The Chinese U17 women's football team has always been suppressed by Japan and North Korea in the Asian qualifiers, and has never reached the final or the top two in the last eight U16 women's football Asian junior championships, and has only qualified three times. The first two times were narrow defeats to South Korea and Thailand in the third-place match, and in 2022, North Korea, which won the right to qualify, abstained from the competition and participated in the competition.
In recent years, the Chinese U17 women's football team can basically only ensure the strength of the fourth place in Asia, and it is difficult to get the third place and enter the U17 Women's World Cup. Unable to participate in the World Series for many years, the women's football team has lacked major tournament experience since the U17 age group, and then the gap with Japan, North Korea, and Australia in the senior group is getting wider and wider, and even being caught up by South Korea. The U17 Women's World Cup will be held every year from 2025, and Asia has 4 places, which can basically ensure that the possibility of the Chinese women's football team, which is fourth in Asia, will be greatly increased. Participation in the World Series has become the norm, which is naturally conducive to the women's football team entering a positive cycle from the youth onwards, at least in Asia, to stay in the first group steadily.