Revealed: 2020 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India dates announced!

Spain are the defending champions of the tournament.

Following the successful hosting of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, India is all set to host the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup next year with the provisional dates also being decided a year prior to the tournament.

The biennial tournament will be held from November 2 to November 21 in India, according to PTI. This will also be India’s debut in a Women’s World Cup tournament of this stature after the men’s team had gone down fighting in the 2017 edition in a relatively difficult group. While the India U-17 Women’s team is still being set up by Alex Ambrose, there is quite a lot of work being put in for a brighter showing from the girls.

Indeed, the AIFF had earlier agreed upon sending the U-17 Women’s Team hopefuls on an exposure tour across Europe later this year and next year. Moreover, there is all set to be a preparation tournament organized by Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL) and All India Football Federation (AIFF) to take place next year before the tournament.

While the Indian youth side did fail to make the cut for the AFC Asian U-16 Championship all set to take place later this month, there are already being progress being made in terms of getting them ready for the world stage. Meanwhile, the Kalinga Stadium from Bhubaneswar was provisionally confirmed as an official venue to host matches last month, pending FIFA’s approval.

The tournament will take place across four cities, with Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad and Goa being among the other potential candidates being lined up to host games. Apart from Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar, the rest of the cities had all hosted games for the U-17 Men’s World Cup successfully, with Kolkata even getting to host the grand finale in successful fashion.

North Korea have been the most successful side in the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup history by winning it on two occasions, the first one in 2008 and the 2016 edition in Jordan as well. Apart from that, the tournament has seen different winners on each edition with Spain emerging as winners in the last edition hosted by Uruguay in 2018.

The qualifiers for the upcoming edition are still going on, with youth tournament across the world set to decide who will make the trip to India next year. As India is already making strides in Women’s Football thanks to Maymol Rocky’s inspired work, a strong finish in next year’s tournament will definitely help put Indian Women’s Football on the map.