FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, scheduled for the first time in 2008, will be the world championship of football for female players under the age of 17. It is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

History

In 2003 after the inaugural success of the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship, held in Canada, FIFA proposed adding a second youth tournament for girls. Continental confederations told FIFA it would be difficult to create a second championship, with the age limits in place at the time. Therefore, FIFA created the U-17 Women's World Cup and the U-20 Women's World Championship (renamed the "U-20 Women's World Cup" in 2007), the same age groups as its men's youth tournaments. Accordingly, the age limit for the U-19 championship was increased to 20, effective with the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women's World Championship in Russia. FIFA committed to creating a U-17 women's championship, slated to begin in 2008. [http://fifa.com/en/comp/index/0,3332,U17W2008,00.html?comp=U17W&year=2008]

The first tournament will be held from 28 October to 16 November in New Zealand, which was awarded the event at the same time that Chile received hosting honours for the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup; Ecuador also bid for the event. Four cities will host matches during the inaugural tournament - Auckland (North Harbour Stadium), Hamilton (Waikato Stadium), Wellington (Wellington Stadium) and Christchurch (QEII Park)

2008 Competing Teams

Sixteen teams will participate in the tournament—three each from AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and UEFA, with New Zealand taking up the OFC

The teams are:

* From AFC there have qualified the finalists and the third place of the 2007 U-16 Asian Championship: fbw|PRK, fbw|JPN and fbw|KOR.Fact|date=March 2007
* From CAF, The top two teams out of three from the 2008 CAF Women's U-17 Championship qualifying tournament: fbw|NGR and fbw|GHA
* From CONMEBOL there have qualified the three best teams from 2008 South American Under 17 Women's Championship: fbw|COL, fbw|BRA and fbw|PAR. [ [http://www.conmebol.com/articulos_ver.jsp?id=61832&slangab=S Conmebol.com] ]
* From OFC, fbw|NZL (qualified as host)
* From UEFA there have qualified the three best teams from 2008 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship: fbw|FRA, fbw|ENG, fbw|DEN and fbw|GER. [ [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/wunder17/news/kind=1/newsid=684393.html Uefa.com] ]
* and fbw|CRC have qualified by virtue of making the CONCACAF U-17 Final. fbw|CAN won the 3rd place match on July 27, 2008 for the final spot in the U-17 World Cup.

Results

References

External links

* [http://www.fifa.com/u17womenworldcup/index.html Official FIFA site for this competition]
* [http://nzsoccer.com/page/fifa_u17_womens_world_cup.html New Zealand Football FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup page]