The 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup will be the 21st edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the annual international men's youth football tournament contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It is will be held in Qatar in November.[1] This edition is the second edition of the annual cycle adopted by FIFA for the U-17 World Cup as well as the second to be played in a 48-team format (previously, held as a biennial 24-team tournament).[2] As part of these changes, FIFA also granted Qatar the hosting rights for the tournament for a five-year period from 2025 to 2029.[3]
Portugal are the defending champions, having won their first title in 2025.
Host selection
On 15 November 2023, FIFA launched a global call for expressions of interest from member associations to host the next five editions of the U17 World Cup (2025–2029) as a single consolidated package. Member associations had to express their interest no later than 4 December 2023.[4][5]
After a FIFA Council meeting held on 14 March 2024, it was announced that Qatar would host the next five editions of the U-17 World Cup (2025–2029), as part of the new annual cycle implemented by FIFA for the tournament.[6][7] This was the first time that Qatar hosted the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the third time that the tournament was held in the Arab world.
Controversies
Although FIFA did not disclose whether there were other interested member associations, a joint bid by Indonesia and Singapore and another by Denmark were known to have been submitted.[8][9]
The Danish Football Association accused FIFA of changing the format to a five-year package without clearly announcing it. They said that they and other potential bidders were blindsided by FIFA when Qatar and Morocco—who was chosen to host the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup during the same years—ended up with the deal, saying that "FIFA moved the goalposts".[9][10]
This joined previous controversies regarding Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, such as violations of the human rights of migrant workers and FIFA's ban on the Danish football team training with pro-human rights shirts.[11] In 2024, Amnesty International criticized FIFA and Qatar for not yet addressing the "severe" human rights violations surrounding the hosting of the 2022 World Cup, claiming that they are not taking responsibility for "the vast number of migrant workers who were exploited and in many cases died to make the 2022 World Cup possible".[12][13] In 2025, Amnesty reported that "the Qatari authorities continued to fail to investigate effectively the deaths of migrant workers and to hold employers or authorities accountable, preventing any assessment of whether the deaths were work-related and depriving families of the opportunity to receive compensation."[14] Also in 2025, Human Rights Watch stated that despite scrutiny regarding migrant worker deaths building up to the tournament, Qatar "has failed to prevent, investigate, or compensate" for the deaths of thousands of them.[15]
Teams
Qualification
A total of 48 teams qualified for the final tournament. In addition to Qatar, who qualified automatically as the host nation, the other 47 teams qualified from six separate continental competitions. The slot allocation per confederation was approved by the FIFA Council meeting held on 15 May 2024:[16]
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Qatar 
New Caledonia 
New Zealand 
Fiji