April 4 – Peru has been stripped of the hosting of the U-17 World Cup for the second time by FIFA who said there was not enough time to “secure the required investment and complete the necessary work” with the Peruvian government.
Peru should have staged the tournament in 2021 but the finals were delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
FIFA also removed the 2019 edition from the Peruvians after inspection visits found issues with the prepared infrastructure and organisation. At the time Brazil came to the rescue and hosted the tournament.
The core of the problem is Peru’s inability “to fulfill its commitments to completing the infrastructure required to stage the tournament,” said FIFA
Laying the blame firmly at the door of government, FIFA said: “Despite a very positive working relationship between FIFA and the FPF, it has been determined that there is now not sufficient time to secure the required investment and complete the necessary work with the Peruvian government ahead of the tournament start date.
FIFA said that the tournament remains scheduled to take place from 10 November to 2 December 2023, and that the Bureau of the FIFA Council (the heads of the six confederations plus the FIFA president) “will now designate a new host in due course”.
This is the second week in a row FIFA has had to strip a nation of the hosting rights to an age group World Cup.
Last week, FIFA removed the U-20 World Cup from Indonesia after the country’s politicians protested against Israel’s participation in the tournament scheduled to take place in May.
Argentina has reportedly said it would be prepared to host the U-20 tournament. However, FIFA may decide to keep both tournaments within the confederations they were awarded to with potentially one of the Gulf nations within the AFC stepping in to host the U-20s, while Argentina could pick up the U-17 hosting.
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