FIFA Announces Draw Procedures For FIFA U-17 Men’s and Women’s World Cup
FIFA has confirmed the draw procedures for this year’s editions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup.
The draws for both tournaments will take place at FIFA’s Zurich headquarters from 15:00 local time (CET) this Thursday, 21 May 2026, and will be live-streamed on FIFA+, TikTok and YouTube.
This will be the second year in a row in which these now annual U-17 showpiece events will be staged in Qatar and Morocco, which will host the competitions up until the 2029 instalments inclusive.
The tenth edition of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be staged in Morocco from 17 October to 7 November 2026.
Last year’s competition, which was the first instalment under the expanded 24-team format, saw Korea DPR retain their crown, and they will be looking to create tournament history by reigning supreme for a third straight edition.
Ahead of the draw, the 24 qualified nations have been placed into four pots of six teams each, with hosts Morocco automatically assigned to pot 1 and the remaining sides allocated according to the FIFA ranking system.
This system is based on the total number of points obtained over the last five editions of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, held in 2025, 2024, 2022, 2018 and 2016. The greatest value was given to results from the most recent instalment of the tournament, with a progressively lower weighting applied to performances in previous editions.
The top five teams in the ranking were allotted to pot 1 alongside Morocco, with the remaining sides placed into pots 2, 3 and 4 accordingly. The six tournament groups will each consist of four teams, with one drawn from each pot. Whenever possible, FIFA’s general principle is to ensure that no group contains more than one team from the same confederation.
For the purposes of the draw, placeholders featuring the confederation name will be used for four of the qualified teams from the CAF region, which will only be confirmed after the draw.
Pot allocation for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Morocco 2026.
Pot 1: Morocco, Spain, Korea DPR, Japan, USA, Canada
Pot 2: Brazil, Mexico, CAF 1, Germany, France, China PR
Pot 3: New Zealand, CAF 2, Poland, CAF 3, CAF 4, Chile
Pot 4: Venezuela, Norway, Samoa, Australia, Puerto Rico, Argentina
The FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2026, which will be the 21st edition of the tournament, is set to be contested between 19 November and 13 December, with 48 teams poised to compete for the global crown. Portugal took the trophy home at last year’s event, which was the inaugural edition under the expanded format.
For the draw, the 48 qualified nations will be placed into four pots of 12 teams each, with hosts Qatar assigned to pot 1 and the remaining sides allocated according to the FIFA ranking system. This system is based on the total number of points obtained over the last five editions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in 2025, 2023, 2019, 2017 and 2015. The greatest value is given to results from the most recent instalment of the tournament, with a progressively lower weighting applied to performances in previous editions.
The top teams in the ranking will be allotted to pot 1 alongside Qatar, with the remaining sides placed into pots 2, 3 and 4 accordingly. The 12 tournament groups will each consist of four teams, with one drawn from each pot.
As two of CAF’s qualified teams will only be confirmed after the draw, the seeding for the tournament has yet to be finalised. For the purposes of the draw, placeholders featuring the confederation name will be used for these two teams. CAF has been allocated ten slots in total.
The qualified teams are as follows:
AFC: Qatar (hosts), Australia, China PR, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
Concacaf: Costa Rica, Cuba, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, USA
CONMEBOL: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Venezuela
OFC: Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand
UEFA: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Spain
The match schedules for the tournaments, including the venue, date and kick-off time for each fixture, will be published following the completion of the draws. Further information on this year’s editions of the FIFA U-17 World Cup and the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup is available on the respective tournament pages of FIFA.com .
The draws, which will be held at the Home of FIFA, coincide with the opening day of this year’s World Football Week (21-25 May). One campaign set to be promoted during the week is the global Be Active initiative led by FIFA and the World Health Organization, which focuses on encouraging children to clock up at least 60 minutes of daily activity, with a view to promoting healthy bodies and happy minds.
Together, stakeholders across the game have an important role to play in helping to inspire participation. World Football Week provides an opportunity to engage as many children as possible in football and physical activity, with every session, activation and moment helping to support the development of lifelong healthy habits. More information on World Football Week can be found in the “Campaigns” section on Inside FIFA.
