NEW DELHI: World football governing body FIFA has awarded the hosting rights for next year’s U-20 World Cup to Poland.
This was decided at the FIFA’s first council meeting of 2018 in Bogota, Colombia,, where the bid of the European nation won favour over that of India’s.
After successfully organising the U-17 World Cup last October, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) had submitted its bid to host the U-20 World Cup in 2019.
Both India and Poland fulfilled the most important criteria – of having ready stadia.
With the tournament scheduled to be held around May to June, Poland emerged as the preferred choice as it will be difficult for players to play in the scorching Indian summer, PTI reports.
Following its council meeting, FIFA stated: “After discussing the pros and cons of adopting a different strategy for the future of international youth competitions, the FIFA council decided to stick to the existing structure of biennial U-17 and U-20 tournaments for both men and women.
“Regarding the tournaments scheduled for 2019, the FIFA council designated Poland as the host of the FIFA U-20 World Cup and Peru of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.”
The last edition of the tournament was held in South Korea last year.
Argentina have won the tournament most number of times (six), followed by their South American rivals Brazil, who triumphed on five occasions.
