By Our Correspondent
For the first time, 2023 FIFA U17 World Cup draw will hold on September 15th, 2023, in Zurich without Nigeria – one of the best teams that crashed out in the qualifiers.
After winning the West African Football Union U17 tournament, Nduka Ugbade led team couldn’t pick the World Cup ticket at the CAF U17 African Cup of Nations.
The West African country, Nigeria, won the inaugural edition in 1985 and has gone ahead to win in four extra occasions to become one of the most successful nations in the tournament’s history, with five titles and further three appearances in the finals which they lost.
The tournament, billed for Indonesia will be contested by the following teams – Argentina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Indonesia, IR Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Senegal, Spain, USA, Uzbekistan and Venezuela
Indonesia has automatically been placed into Pot 1 as the tournament host. FIFA’s general principle is to ensure that no group has more than one team from the same confederation drawn into it.
The draw will be conducted by FIFA Director of Tournaments Jaime Yarza, with former FIFA U‑17 World Cup winner Stephen Appiah and Júlio César, who featured in the final of the 1995 edition, to act as assistants.
The pots are as follows:
Pot 1: Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, France, Spain, Japan
Pot 2: Germany, Mali, England, Korea Republic, Argentina, Ecuador
Pot 3: New Zealand, IR Iran, Senegal, USA, Uzbekistan, Morocco
Pot 4: Canada, New Caledonia, Panama, Venezuela, Poland, Burkina Faso.
