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About FIFA U-17 World Cup
The FIFA U-17 World Cup is a biennial International youth Football Tournament, where players under the age of 17 from member nations
compete for honours. The first edition of this event was held in 1985 in China, when it was an U-16 competition. The age limit was raised
to 17 from the 1991 edition onwards. The most recent tournament was hosted by Chile in 2015, which was won by Nigeria, and the 17th edition
is being hosted by India in 2017.
The U-16 World Cup was inspired by a tournament organised by the Football Association of Singapore called the Lion City Cup in 1982.
Joe Blatter, who was the secretary-general of FIFA back then, recommended the world football body to have a similar tournament and thus
the FIFA U-16 World Cup was born in 1985.
Nigeria is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, with five titles and three runners-up finishes.
Brazil has won it thrice, while Ghana and Mexico have two titles each.
The Structure and Format of the Tournament
From 1985 to 2005, the tournament featured 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams. In the group stage,
each team played the other three members in their group with the group winner and runner-up qualifying for the knockout phase.
Since 2007, the tournament was expanded to 24 trams, which are then divided into six groups of four teams each.
The top two teams from each group, along with the four best third-placed teams, advance to the last-16 phase.
A total of 52 matches are played over the group stage, Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, decider for third place and the final.
Nigeria is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, with five titles and three runners-up finishes.
Brazil has won it thrice, while Ghana and Mexico have two titles each.
The four best third-place teams are decided using the following criteria:
1. Points obtained in all group matches
2. Goal difference in all group matches
3. Number of goals scored in all group matches.
4. Fair play points
5. Drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee
All matches follow the basic rules of football, with two halves of 45 minutes each.
However, there is no extra time at the end of 90 minutes and all knockout matches directly proceed to a penalty shootout, if needed.
In addition to India who qualified automatically as the hosts, the other 23 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions
held by their respective confederation. The six competitions are as follows:
1.Asian Football Confederation (AFC for Asia);
2.Oceania Football Confederation (OFC for New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, and other Pacific Island countries);
3.Confederation of African Football (CAF for African countries);
4.Confederation of North;
5.Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF for North American nations);
6.South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL for countries in South America) and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA for European nations).
7.The AFC were the only confederation that hosted a U-16 championship for qualifying, the rest of the competitions were all U-17 qualifiers.
From 2017, OFC received an extra berth in the FIFA U-17 World Cup (two in all), while UEFA have only five spots instead of six. The rest of the confederations have four qualifying berths each.