A National under-21 football team represents the second-highest stage in European international football competition. Only Europe (UEFA) uses an under-21 age limit, and only for men. FIFA, the sport's worldwide governing body, runs competitions for both men and women in the under-20 age group. Among FIFA's continental confederations, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL hold U-20 championships for men, while the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) do not conduct U-20 championships, with their highest youth competitions for men being at under-19 level. For women, UEFA and the AFC run under-19 championships instead of under-20; CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, and the OFC run under-20 championships; and the CAF's under-20 "championship" is strictly a World Cup qualifier and currently has no championship match, as that confederation receives more than one berth in the U-20 Women's World Cup.
European countries compete for the UEFA Under-21 Championship. To be eligible in U-21 teams it is necessary to be a maximum of 21 years old when the competition starts. [1] [2]
The Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) is one of the six continental confederations of international association football. The OFC has 13 members, 11 of which are full members and two which are associate members not affiliated with FIFA. It promotes the game in Oceania and allows the member nations to qualify for the FIFA World Cup.
The South American Football Confederation is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Paraguay, near Asunción. CONMEBOL is responsible for the organization and governance of South American football's major international tournaments. With 10 member football associations, it has the fewest members of all the confederations in FIFA.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach football, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in OFC, joined AFC in 2006. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, both territories of the United States, are also AFC members that are geographically in Oceania. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC) was the section of AFC who managed women's association football in Asia. The group was independently founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. In 1986 ALFC merged with AFC by Pooria Putak.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when it was hosted by Tunisia under the tournament name of FIFA World Youth Championship until 2005. In 2007 the name was changed to its present form. FIFA bills the men's Under-20 World Cup as "the tournament of tomorrow's superstars." Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Paul Pogba are previous winners of the official player of the tournament award, and Erling Haaland was the top scorer at the 2019 edition. The current title holder is Uruguay, which won its first title at the 2023 tournament in Argentina.
The 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) — was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. 199 teams entered the tournament qualification rounds, competing for 32 spots in the final tournament. South Korea and Japan, as the co-hosts, and France, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 29 spots open for competition.
Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC (Oceania), and UEFA (Europe) – was allocated a certain number of the 32 places at the tournament. A total of 205 teams entered the qualification competition, with South Africa, as the host, qualifying for the World Cup automatically. The first qualification matches were played on 25 August 2007 and qualification concluded on 18 November 2009. Overall, 2,338 goals were scored over 852 matches, scoring on average 2.74 per match.
The qualification process for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup saw 54 teams from the six FIFA confederations compete for the 11 places in the tournament's finals. Sweden qualified automatically as hosts. The places were divided as follows:
The qualification process for the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup saw 67 teams from the six FIFA confederations compete for the 16 places in the tournament's finals. The places were divided as follows:
The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process decided the 15 teams which played at the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the host China initially qualified automatically as the host nation. The qualification process for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup saw 99 teams from the six FIFA confederations compete for the 16 places in the tournament's finals. The places were divided as follows:
Sports broadcasting contracts in New Zealand include:
The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 remaining FIFA member associations were eligible to enter the qualifying process, and for the first time in World Cup history, all eligible national teams registered for the preliminary competition, but Zimbabwe and Indonesia were disqualified before playing their first matches. Bhutan, South Sudan, Gibraltar and Kosovo made their FIFA World Cup qualification debuts, while Myanmar participated after successfully appealing against a ban from the competition, although the team was obliged to play its home matches outside the country.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The association football tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics was held from 3 to 20 August in Brazil.
The qualification for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup determined which 23 teams joined Canada, the hosts of the 2015 tournament, to play for the Women's World Cup.
The following are the scheduled events of association football for the year 2015 throughout the world.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification will be the qualifying process which will decide the teams that will join hosts Canada, Mexico and the United States at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification process decided all 24 teams which played in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, with the hosts France qualifying automatically. It is the eighth FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's football world championship tournament. The tournament is the third to be hosted in Europe, after the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup in Sweden and the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany.
The futsal competition at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics was held from 7 to 18 October. At Tecnópolis and the CeNARD, the first one located in Villa Martelli, and the second one in Buenos Aires. There are two tournaments, one for boys and one for girls.
The following were the events of association football for the year 2019 throughout the world.
A total of 16 teams are scheduled to compete in the men's football tournament at the 2024 Summer Olympics. In addition to the host nation France, 15 men's national under-23 teams qualified or will qualify from the tournaments of the six continental confederations.