FIFA cancels Men’s 2021 under-20 and under-21 World Cups

FIFA cancels Men’s 2021 under-20 and under-21 World Cups

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he Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to cancel the men’s under-17 and under-20 World Cup of 2021 editions following the Coronavirus pandemic. In addition it gave the Indonesia and Peru the hosting respectively for the 2023 editions.

“The COVID-19 pandemic continues present challenges for the hosting of international sporting events and to have a restrictive effect on international travel. FIFA has therefore regularly consulted the relevant stakeholders, including the host members associations as well as the confederations involved in both tournaments originally scheduled to take place in 2021,” the football governing body said in a statement.

“In doing so, it became clear that the global situation has failed to normalise to a sufficient level to address the challenges associated with hosting both tournaments, including the feasibility of the relevant qualification pathways,” it added.

FIFA Women’s World Cup has expanded to 32 teams after the amazing success of the 2019 edition. To formulate proposal for the allocation of slots, FIFA has since worked closely with the federation and also the following berths for the 2023 edition has confirmed by the Bureau of the FIFA Council as: six direct slots for the AFC; four direct slots for CAF; four direct slots for Concacaf; three direct slots for CONMEBOL; one direct slot for the OFC; and 11 direct slots for UEFA.

New Zealand and Australia are the host countries that will qualify automatically for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. Namely the OFC and the AFC respectively, their slots have been taken directly from the quotas allocated to their federations.