FIFA U-17 World Cup

FIFA U-17 World Cup

Founded	1985
Region	International (FIFA)
Number of teams	24
Current champions	Switzerland (1st title)
Most successful team	Nigeria  Brazil (3 titles each)
Website	U-17 World Cup
2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup

The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to the FIFA U-17 World Championship and known by its current name since 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

The first edition was staged in 1985 and tournaments have been played every two years since then. It began as a competition for players under the age of 16 with the age limit raised to 17 from the 1991 edition onwards. The most recent tournament was hosted by Nigeria and was won by Switzerland. It has been announced that the next edition will be played in Mexico in 2011.

Brazil and Nigeria are the most successful nations in the tournament's history, with three wins each. Ghana has won the tournament twice.

A corresponding tournament for female players, the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, began in 2008, with Korea DPR winning the inaugural tournament.

Structure

Each tournament consists of a group phase, where four teams play against one another and standings in the group table decide which teams advance, followed by a knockout phase of successive matches where the winning team advances through the competition and the losing team is eliminated. This continues until two teams remain to contest the final, which decides the tournament winner. The losing semi-finalists also contest a match to decide third place.

From 1985 to 2005 there were 16 teams in the competition, divided into four groups of four teams each in the group phase. Each team played the others in its group and the group winner and runner up qualified for the knockout phase. From 2007 the tournament was expanded to 24 teams, divided into six groups of four teams each. The top 2 places in each group plus the four best third-placed teams advanced to the knockout phase.

Competition matches are played in two 45 minute halves (ie 90 minutes in total). In the knockout phase, if the scores are level at the end of 90 minutes an additional 30 minutes of extra time is played. If the scores are still level at the end of extra time, a penalty shoot-out is used to decide the match winner.

Qualification

The host nation of each tournament qualifies automatically. The remaining teams qualify through competitions organised by the six regional confederations. For the first edition of the tournament in 1985, all of the teams from Europe plus Bolivia appeared by invitation of FIFA.

Results

Summaries

Year	Host		Final				Third Place Match
			Champion	Score	Second Place		Third Place	Score	Fourth Place
1985 Details	China		Nigeria	2–0	West Germany		Brazil	4–1	Guinea
1987 Details	Canada		Soviet Union	1–1 a.e.t. (4–2 PSO)	Nigeria		Côte d'Ivoire	2–1 a.e.t.	Italy
1989 Details	Scotland		Saudi Arabia	2–2 a.e.t. (5–4 PSO)	Scotland		Portugal	3–0	Bahrain
1991 Details	Italy		Ghana	1–0	Spain		Argentina	1–1 a.e.t. (4–1 PSO)	Qatar
1993 Details	Japan		Nigeria	2–1	Ghana		Chile	1–1 a.e.t. (4–2 PSO)	Poland
1995 Details	Ecuador		Ghana	3–2	Brazil		Argentina	2–0	Oman
1997 Details	Egypt		Brazil	2–1	Ghana		Spain	2–1	Germany
1999 Details	New Zealand		Brazil	0–0 a.e.t. (8–7 PSO)	Australia		Ghana	2–0	United States
2001 Details	Trinidad and Tobago		France	3–0	Nigeria		Burkina Faso	2–0	Argentina
2003 Details	Finland		Brazil	1–0	Spain		Argentina	1–1 a.e.t. (5–4 PSO)	Colombia
2005 Details	Peru		Mexico	3–0	Brazil		Netherlands	2–1	Turkey
2007 Details	Korea Republic		Nigeria	0–0 a.e.t. (3–0 PSO)	Spain		Germany	2–1	Ghana
2009 Details	Nigeria		Switzerland	1–0	Nigeria		Spain	1–0	Colombia
2011 Details	Mexico

• Key:
  • aet - after extra time
  • PSO- match won on penalty shootout

Performances by countries

Team	Titles	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
Nigeria	3 (1985, 1993, 2007)	3 (1987, 2001, 2009)
Brazil	3 (1997, 1999, 2003)	2 (1995, 2005)	1 (1985)
Ghana	2 (1991, 1995)	2 (1993, 1997)	1 (1999)	1 (2007)
Switzerland	1 (2009)
Mexico	1 (2005)
France	1 (2001)
Saudi Arabia	1 (1989)
Soviet Union	1 (1987)
Spain		3 (1991, 2003, 2007)	2 (1997, 2009)
Germany		1 (1985)	1 (2007)	1 (1997)
Scotland		1 (1989)
Australia		1 (1999)
Argentina			3 (1991, 1995, 2003)	1 (2001)
Côte d'Ivoire			1 (1987)
Portugal			1 (1989)
Chile			1 (1993)
Burkina Faso			1 (2001)
Netherlands			1 (2005)
Colombia				2 (2003, 2009)
Turkey				1 (2005)
Oman				1 (1995)
Poland				1 (1993)
Qatar				1 (1991)
Italy				1 (1987)
United States				1 (1999)

Performances by continental zones

Africa is the most successful continental zone with 5 tournament wins (3 for Nigeria, 2 for Ghana) and 5 times as runner up. Notably the 1993 final was contested by two African teams, the only occasion when the final has been contested by two teams from the same confederation.

South America has 3 tournament wins and has been runner up twice (all Brazil). Additionally Argentina has finished in third place on 3 occasions but has never appeared in the final.

Europe has 3 tournaments wins (1 each for France, USSR and Switzerland) and has been runner up 5 times. Spain has been runner up on 3 occasions.

The CONCACAF zone has 1 tournament win (for Mexico in 2005), the only time that a team from this confederation has reached the final.

Asia has 1 tournament win (for Saudi Arabia in 1989), the only time that a team from this confederation has reached the final. (Australia was runner up in 1999 but at that time was in the Oceania Football Confederation).

Oceania has no tournament wins and 1 occasion as runner up (for Australia in 1999). Australia has since moved to the Asian confederation.

Awards

At every tournament three awards are presented:

• The Golden Foot is awarded to the top goalscorer of tournament.
• The Golden Ball is awarded to the most valuable player of the tournament.
• The Fair Play Award is presented to the team with the best disciplinary record in the tournament.

Tournament	Golden Ball	Golden Shoe Award	Goals	Fair Play Award
1985 China	William	Marcel Witeczek	8	West Germany
1987 Canada	Philip Osundu	Moussa Traoré	5	Soviet Union
1989 Scotland	James Will	Fode Camara	3	Bahrain
1991 Italy	Nii Lamptey	Adriano	4	Argentina
1993 Japan	Daniel Addo	Wilson Oruma	6	Nigeria
1995 Ecuador	Mohamed Kathiri	Daniel Allsopp	5	Brazil
1997 Egypt	Sergio Santamaría	David	7	Argentina
1999 New Zealand	Landon Donovan	Ishmael Addo	7	Mexico
2001 Trinidad and Tobago	Florent Sinama-Pongolle	Florent Sinama-Pongolle	9	Nigeria
2003 Finland	Cesc Fàbregas	Cesc Fàbregas	5	Costa Rica
2005 Peru	Anderson	Carlos Vela	5	Korea DPR
2007 Korea Republic	Toni Kroos	Macauley Chrisantus	7	Costa Rica
2009 Nigeria	Sani Emmanuel	Borja González	5	Nigeria

Records and Statistics

The United States has appeared in all 12 editions of the competition (1985-2007) and is the only country to do so, Brazil has appeared 11 times and Australia 10 times.

Brazil and Nigeria have each appeared in the final on 5 occasions and have each won the tournament 3 times.

France's Florent Sinama-Pongolle holds the record for the most goals scored by a player in a single tournament, scoring 9 goals in the 2001 edition.

Spain hold the record for most goals scored by a team in a single tournament with 22 goals in the 1997 tournament.

2009

External links

• FIFA.com
• RSSSF archive

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