2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup

2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup
Copa Mundial Sub-20 de la FIFA 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Argentina
Dates	20 May – 11 June
Teams	24 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Uruguay (1st title)
Runners-up	Italy
Third place	Israel
Fourth place	South Korea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	154 (2.96 per match)
Attendance	692,084 (13,309 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Cesare Casadei; (7 goals)
Best player(s)	Cesare Casadei
Best goalkeeper	Sebastiano Desplanches
Fair play award	United States
	← 2019; 2021 2025 →

The official match ball used in the tournament was Adidas Oceaunz.

The tournament was held in Argentina, who had previously hosted in 2001. Indonesia had originally been set to host the competition, having been hosts of the cancelled 2021 edition, but their hosting rights were stripped on 29 March 2023 due to their refusal to host Israel.

Ukraine, the reigning champions, could not defend their title as they failed to qualify. Hosts Argentina were knocked out in the round of 16 after three wins in the group stage. The final was held on 11 June 2023, and Uruguay defeated Italy to become champions for the first time. It was the country's first world title since the men's senior in the 1950 FIFA World Cup.

Host selection

Five bids to host the original 2021 tournament were submitted in 2019, and Indonesia was announced as the winning bidder on 24 October 2019. In December 2020, the 2021 event was postponed until 2023, with Indonesia remaining as host.

However, Indonesia was stripped of hosting rights on 29 March 2023 due to its refusal to host Israel. Peru, Argentina and Qatar confirmed their interest in hosting the tournament. On 30 March, Argentina became the only country to submit an official bid.

On 17 April 2023, at a press conference jointly held by economy minister Sergio Massa, tourism and sports minister Matías Lammens, and the president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio Tapia, it was announced that Argentina would host the tournament, followed shortly after by a statement from FIFA confirming Argentina as the new hosts. Argentina will thus become the second nation to host the U-20 World Cup twice (having previously hosted it in 2001). Australia is the other nation that had hosted it twice (1981 and 1993).^{[citation needed]}

Qualified teams

A total of 24 teams qualified for the final tournament. Teams qualified from six continental competitions.

The Dominican Republic and Israel made their debut in the competition; this was the Dominican Republic's first-ever qualification for a FIFA tournament. Having qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup via the Asian qualification, this was the first FIFA tournament for which Israel qualified as a European representative.

Argentina qualified for the tournament as the host country in place of Indonesia, even though they originally had failed to qualify through the 2023 South American U-20 Championship. Indonesia had also failed to qualify for the competition and lost its automatic spot in the WC when the tournament was moved to Argentina.

Confederation	Qualifying tournament	Team	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
AFC (Asia)	2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup	Iraq	5th	2013	Fourth place (2013)
		Japan	11th	2019	Runners-up (1999)
		South Korea	16th	2019	Runners-up (2019)
		Uzbekistan	5th	2015	Quarter-finals (2013, 2015)
CAF (Africa)	2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations	Gambia	2nd	2007	Round of 16 (2007)
		Nigeria	13th	2019	Runners-up (1989, 2005)
		Senegal	4th	2019	Fourth place (2015)
		Tunisia	3rd	1985	Group stage (1977, 1985)
CONCACAF (Central, North America and Caribbean)	2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship	Dominican Republic	1st	Debut	Debut
		Guatemala	2nd	2011	Round of 16 (2011)
		Honduras	9th	2019	Group stage (1977, 1995, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2019)
		United States	17th	2019	Fourth place (1989)
CONMEBOL (South America)	Host nation	Argentina	17th	2019	Champions (1979, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007)
	2023 South American U-20 Championship	Brazil	19th	2015	Champions (1983, 1985, 1993, 2003, 2011)
		Colombia	11th	2019	Third place (2003)
		Ecuador	5th	2019	Third place (2019)
		Uruguay	16th	2019	Runners-up (1997, 2013)
OFC (Oceania)	2022 OFC U-19 Championship	Fiji	2nd	2015	Group stage (2015)
OFC (Oceania)	2022 OFC U-19 Championship	New Zealand	7th	2019	Round of 16 (2015, 2017, 2019)
UEFA (Europe)	2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship	England	12th	2017	Champions (2017)
		France	8th	2019	Champions (2013)
		Israel	1st	Debut	Debut
		Italy	8th	2019	Third place (2017)
		Slovakia	2nd	2003	Round of 16 (2003)

Venues

La Plata, Mendoza, San Juan and Santiago del Estero were the four cities chosen to host the competition.

La Plata	Santiago del Estero	Mendoza	San Juan
Estadio Único Diego Armando Maradona	Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades	Estadio Malvinas Argentinas	Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario
Capacity: 53,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 42,000	Capacity: 25,286

La Plata Santiago del Estero Mendoza San Juan 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup (Argentina)

Draw

The draw took place at 16:00 CEST (11:00 ART host time) on 21 April 2023 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland. The twenty-four teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts, Argentina, automatically seeded to Pot 1 and placed into the first position of Group A, while the remaining teams were seeded into their respective pots based on their results in the last five FIFA U-20 World Cups (more recent tournaments weighted more heavily) as follows:

2011 FIFA U-20 WC: 20% value of total points;
2013 FIFA U-20 WC: 40% value of total points;
2015 FIFA U-20 WC: 60% value of total points;
2017 FIFA U-20 WC: 80% value of total points;
2019 FIFA U-20 WC: 100% value of total points.

Furthermore, five bonus points were added to each of the six continental champions from the qualifying tournaments.

Pot	Team	Confederation	2011		2013		2015		2017		2019	BP	Total points
Pot	Team	Confederation	Pts	20%	Pts	40%	Pts	60%	Pts	80%	Pts 100%	BP	Total points
1	Argentina (H)	CONMEBOL	Host nation, automatically asigned to Pot 1
	Uruguay	CONMEBOL	2	0.4	14	5.6	5	3	13	10.4	9		28.4
	United States	CONCACAF	DNQ		1	0.4	10	6	8	6.4	9	+5	26.8
	France	UEFA	12	2.4	14	5.6	DNQ		9	7.2	9		24.2
	Senegal	CAF	DNQ		DNQ		8	4.8	4	3.2	11	+5	24
	Italy	UEFA	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		11	8.8	13		21.8

2	England	UEFA	3	0.6	2	0.8	DNQ		19	15.2	DNQ	+5	21.6
	South Korea	AFC	4	0.8	6	2.4	DNQ		6	4.8	13		21
	New Zealand	OFC	2	0.4	0	0	4	2.4	4	3.2	7	+5	18
	Brazil	CONMEBOL	17	3.4	DNQ		14	8.4	DNQ		DNQ	+5	16.8
	Ecuador	CONMEBOL	4	0.8	DNQ		DNQ		2	1.6	13		15.4
	Colombia	CONMEBOL	12	2.4	8	3.2	4	2.4	DNQ		7		15

3	Nigeria	CAF	12	2.4	6	2.4	6	3.6	DNQ		4		12.4
	Uzbekistan	AFC	DNQ		7	2.8	6	3.6	DNQ		DNQ	+5	11.4
	Japan	AFC	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		4	3.2	5		8.2
	Iraq	AFC	DNQ		12	4.8	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		4.8
	Honduras	CONCACAF	DNQ		DNQ		3	1.8	3	2.4	0		4.2
	Fiji	OFC	DNQ		DNQ		3	1.8	DNQ		DNQ		1.8

4	Guatemala	CONCACAF	3	0.6	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		0.6
	Dominican Republic	CONCACAF	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		0
	Gambia	CAF	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		0
	Israel	UEFA	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		0
	Slovakia	UEFA	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		0
	Tunisia	CAF	DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		DNQ		0

The draw started with teams from pot one being drawn first and placed in the first position of their groups (hosts Argentina automatically assigned to A1). Then were drawn the teams from pot 2, followed by pot 3 and pot 4, with each team also drawn to one of the positions within their group, No group could contain more than one team from each confederation. The ceremony was presented by Samantha Johnson and conducted by FIFA Director of Tournaments Jaime Yarza, with the former footballers Juan Pablo Sorín, from Argentina, and David Trezeguet, from France, acting as draw assistants.

The draw resulted in the following groups:

Group A
Pos	Team
A1	Argentina
A2	Uzbekistan
A3	Guatemala
A4	New Zealand

Group B
Pos	Team
B1	United States
B2	Ecuador
B3	Fiji
B4	Slovakia

Group C
Pos	Team
C1	Senegal
C2	Japan
C3	Israel
C4	Colombia

Group D
Pos	Team
D1	Italy
D2	Brazil
D3	Nigeria
D4	Dominican Republic

Group E
Pos	Team
E1	Uruguay
E2	Iraq
E3	England
E4	Tunisia

Group F
Pos	Team
F1	France
F2	South Korea
F3	Gambia
F4	Honduras

Match officials

A total of nineteen refereeing trios (a referee and two assistant referees), six support referees, and eighteen video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament. On 19 May, Swiss referee Sandro Schärer withdrew due to an injury and was replaced by José María Sánchez Martínez.

Confederation	Referees	Assistant referees	Video assistant referees	Support referee
AFC	Yusuke Araki	Jun Mihara Takumi Takagi	Ahmad Muhammad Darwish Kim Jong-hyeok Sivakorn Pu-udom	Ahmad Al-Ali
	Mohammed Al-Hoaish	Khalaf Zayid Ash-Shammari Yasir Abdullah As-Sultan
	Salman Falahi	Ramzan Sa'id An-Nu'aimi Majid Hudairis Ash-Shammari
CAF	Muhammad Maarouf	Zakaria Burinsi Abbas Akram Zarhouni	Hamza Al-Fariq Umar Ahmad Abdulrahim Ash-Shinawi	Abdulaziz Muhammad Bouh
	Abongile Tom	Ivanildo Meirelles de Oliveira Sanches Lopes Abelmiro dos Reis Monte Negro
	Issa Sy	Nouha Bangoura Adou Hermann Désiré Ngoh
CONCACAF	Marco Antonio Ortiz Nava	Enrique Isaac Bustos Díaz Jorge Antonio Sánchez Espinoza	Adonai Escobedo Tatiana Guzmán Timothy Ford	Bryan López
	Juan Gabriel Calderón	William Arrieta Henry Pupiro
	Oshane Nation	Ojay Duhaney Jassett Kerr-Wilson
CONMEBOL	Ramon Abatti	Rafael da Silva Alves Guilherme Dias Camilo	Germán Delfino Rodolpho Toski Juan Lara Carlos Orbe	Yender Herrera
	Piero Maza	Claudio Urrutia Alejandro Molina
	Jhon Alexander Ospina Londoño	John León John Gallego
	Yael Falcón Pérez	Maximiliano Del Yesso Facundo Rodríguez
OFC	Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh	Folio Moeaki Bernard Mutukera		Veer Singh
UEFA	François Letexier	Cyril Mugnier Mehdi Rahmouni	Luis Godinho Dennis Higler Aleandro Di Paolo Willy Delajod Guillermo Cuadra Fernández Fedayi San	Donatas Rumšas
	Serdar Gözübüyük	Erwin Zeinstra Johan Balder
	José María Sánchez Martínez	Raúl Cabanero Martínez Iñigo Prieto López de Ceraín
	Glenn Nyberg	Mahbod Beigi Andreas Söderkvist
	Halil Umut Meler	Mustafa Emre Eyisoy Kerem Ersoy

Squads

Players born between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2007 (inclusive) were eligible to compete in the tournament.

Each team had to name a preliminary squad of between 22 and 50 players. From the preliminary squad, the team had to name a final squad of 21 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad could be replaced by a player from the preliminary squad due to serious injury or illness up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.

Group stage

The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.

All times are in local, Argentina time (UTC–3).

Tiebreakers

The rankings of teams in each group were determined as follows (regulations Article 17.7):

points obtained in all group matches;
goal difference in all group matches;
number of goals scored in all group matches;

If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined by:

points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;
number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
fair play points:
- first yellow card: minus one point;
- indirect red card (second yellow card): minus three points;
- direct red card: minus four points;
- yellow card and direct red card: minus five points;
drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Argentina (H)	3	3	0	0	10	1	+9	9	Knockout stage
2	Uzbekistan	3	1	1	1	5	4	+1	4
3	New Zealand	3	1	1	1	3	7	−4	4
4	Guatemala	3	0	0	3	0	6	−6	0

Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

20 May 2023

15:00

Guatemala	0–1	New Zealand
	Report	Garbett 80'

Estadio Único Madre de Ciudades, Santiago del Estero

Attendance: 15,100

Referee: Abongile Tom (South Africa)

20 May 2023