The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The tournament was hosted by South Korea from 20 May to 11 June 2017.[2]
The South Korean FA originally made a request to host the tournament outside the traditional June/July period, as it would clash with South Korea's rainy season, as well as any possible national team selection should they have qualified for the Confederations Cup.[3]
Serbia, the 2015 champions, were not able to defend their title as they failed to reach the final round of the UEFA qualifying tournament. In doing so, they became the fifth consecutive incumbent title holder to fail to qualify for the subsequent tournament. The official match ball used in the tournament was Adidas Krasava.
Along with asking member associations whether it wished to host the Under 20, Under 17 or the Beach Soccer World Cup in 2017 (along with Women's Tournaments a year previous), a declaration of interest would need to have been sent by 15 May 2013.[6] A total of 12 countries submitted a bid to host the tournament by the May 2013 deadline:[7]
The final decision on who would be hosts were made as part of FIFA's Executive Committee meetings in Brazil on 5 December 2013 with Korea Republic being awarded the hosting rights.[10]
Qualified teams
A total of 24 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to South Korea who qualified automatically as hosts, the other 23 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. Starting from 2017, the Oceania Football Confederation received an additional slot (in total two), while UEFA will have five instead of six slots.[11]
As part of preparations for the U-20 World Cup, the 2016 Suwon JS Cup, an international football friendly tournament, was held to prepare the host organisers.
Organization
The following were key milestones in the organization of the tournament:
The match schedule was announced by FIFA on 23 November 2015.[12]
Former South Korean internationals Ahn Jung-hwan and Park Ji-sung were appointed as the ambassadors of the tournament.[13]
The official emblem, slogan ("Trigger the Fever") and look of the tournament were unveiled on 16 June 2016.[14]
The official mascot, Chaormi, a young tiger, was unveiled on 25 August 2016.[15]
Details of the volunteer programme, which was launched on 1 November 2016, was released on 18 October 2016.[16]
The official posters were released on 27 October 2016.[17]
Venue package tickets went on sale on 1 November 2016,[18] while general ticket sales began on 2 January 2017.[19] All-out ticket sales kicked off on 16 March 2017.[20]
NCT Dream were appointed as Local Organising Committee ambassadors, and were also chosen to sing the official song of the tournament: "Trigger the Fever".[21]
Draw
The draw was held on 15 March 2017, 15:00 KST (UTC+9), at the Suwon Atrium in Suwon, South Korea.[22][23] Two Argentine players who have won the FIFA U-20 World Cup, Diego Maradona and Pablo Aimar, participated in the draw.[24]Minho Choi from the South Korean idol group SHINee also participated in the draw.[23]
The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with hosts South Korea being automatically seeded into Pot 1 and assigned to the first position of group A. The rest of the teams were seeded into their respective pots based on their results in the last five FIFA U-20 World Cups (more recent tournaments weighted more heavily), and with five bonus points added to each of the 6 continental champions from the qualifying tournaments, as follows:[25]
The draw started with the hosts South Korea being "drawn" to A1. Teams from Pot 1 were drawn first, followed by Pot 2, Pot 3, and finally Pot 4, with each team also drawn to one of the positions within their group. Teams from the same confederation could not be drawn against each other for the group stage.[25]
A total of 22 refereeing trios (a referee and two assistant referees), 5 support referees and 21 video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.[26][27] This was the first FIFA underage tournament which uses the video assistant referee.[28]
Each team had to name a preliminary squad of 35 players. From the preliminary squad, the team had to name a final squad of 21 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad could be replaced due to serious injury up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.[29] The squads were announced by FIFA on 11 May 2017.[30][31]
Group stage
The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.
Source: FIFA Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Fair play points; 5) Drawing of lots. Notes:
1 2 Fair play points: Germany –8, Saudi Arabia –9.
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner. However, for the third place match, no extra time was played and the winner was determined by kicks from the penalty mark.[29]
In the round of 16, the four third-placed teams were matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D. The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depend on which four third-placed teams qualified for the round of 16:[29]
This was the first ever final for both England and Venezuela in the history of the tournament, in their 11th and 2nd appearances respectively.[84] England's previous best result was in 1993 when they finished third, while Venezuela were eliminated in the round of 16 in 2009. This was England's first appearance and victory in the final of a global football tournament since their senior side's 1966 FIFA World Cup victory, ending 51 years of waiting for a global tournament trophy.[85]
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.[1] They were all sponsored by Adidas, except for the FIFA Fair Play Award and Goal of the Tournament.
With five goals, Riccardo Orsolini is the top scorers in the tournament. In total, 140 goals were scored by 90 different players, with three of them credited as own goals.
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
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England (1st title)
Venezuela 
Italy 
Uruguay 
Mexico [1] 
