The 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 23rd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. 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.
Reigning champions Ukraine could not defend their title as they failed to qualify. In doing so, they became the seventh consecutive incumbent title holders to fail to qualify for the subsequent tournament. Hosts Argentina were knocked out in the round of 16 after three wins in the group stage following a two-nil loss to Nigeria. Uruguay defeated Italy in the final, becoming champions for the first time. It was the country's first world title since their men's senior side won 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 allow the Israel U-20 national team in the country. 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.
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.
ConfederationQualifying tournamentTeamAppearanceLast appearancePrevious best performanceAFC2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup5th2013 (2013)11th2019 (1999)16th2019 (2019)5th2015 (2013, 2015)CAF2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations2nd2007 (2007)13th2019 (1989, 2005)4th2019 (2015)3rd1985 (1977, 1985)CONCACAF2022 CONCACAF U-20 Championship1stDebut 2nd2011 (2011)9th2019 (1977, 1995, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2015, 2017, 2019)17th2019 (1989)CONMEBOLHost nation17th2019 (1979, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007)2023 South American U-20 Championship19th2015 (1983, 1985, 1993, 2003, 2011)11th2019 (2003)5th2019 (2019)16th2019 (1997, 2013)OFC2022 OFC U-19 Championship2nd2015 (2015)7th2019 (2015, 2017, 2019)UEFA2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship12th2017 (2017)8th2019 (2013)1stDebut 8th2019 (2017)2nd2003 (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
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), and with five bonus points added to each of the 6 continental champions from the qualifying tournaments, as follows:
PotTeamConfederation20112013201520172019Points(20%)Points(40%)Points(60%)Points(80%)Points(100%)BonusTotalpoints1 (H)CONMEBOLHost nation, automatically assigned to Pot 1CONMEBOL0.45.6310.49 28.4CONCACAF0.466.49+526.8UEFA2.45.67.29 24.2CAF4.83.211+524UEFA8.813 21.82UEFA0.60.815.2+521.6AFC0.82.44.813 21OFC0.402.43.27+518CONMEBOL3.48.4+516.8CONMEBOL0.81.613 15.4CONMEBOL2.43.22.47153CAF2.42.43.64 12.4AFC2.83.6+511.4AFC3.25 8.2AFC4.84.8CONCACAF1.82.404.2OFC1.81.84CONCACAF0.6 0.6CONCACAF0CAF0UEFA0UEFA0CAF0 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 ATeamA1A2A3A4+ Group BTeamB1B2B3B4+ Group CTeamC1C2C3C4+ Group DTeamD1D2D3D4+ Group ETeamE1E2E3E4+ Group FTeamF1F2F3F4
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.
ConfederationRefereesAssistant refereesVideo assistant refereesSupport refereeAFC 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-ShammariCAF 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 NgohCONCACAF Marco Ortíz Enrique Isaac Bustos Díaz Jorge Antonio Sánchez Espinoza Adonai Escobedo Tatiana Guzmán Tim Ford Bryan López Juan Gabriel Calderón William Arrieta Henry Pupiro Oshane Nation Ojay Duhaney Jassett Kerr-WilsonCONMEBOL 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 Ospina John León John Gallego Yael Falcón Maximiliano Del Yesso Facundo RodríguezOFC Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh Folio Moeaki Bernard Mutukera Veer SinghUEFA 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):
If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined by:
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Ranking of third-placed teams The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advanced to the knockout stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up.
In the next stage, the four third-placed teams were matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D according to the tournament regulations.
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If still tied after extra time, the match would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.
In the round of 16, the four third-placed teams were matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D. The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depended on which four third-placed teams qualified for the round of 16:
Third-placed teamsqualified from groups 1Avs 1Bvs 1Cvs 1Dvs A B C D 3C 3D 3A 3B A B C E 3C 3A 3B 3E A B C F 3C 3A 3B 3F A B D E 3D 3A 3B 3E A B D F 3D 3A 3B 3F A B E F 3E 3A 3B 3F A C D E 3C 3D 3A 3E A C D F 3C 3D 3A 3F A C E F 3C 3A 3F 3E A D E F 3D 3A 3F 3E B C D E 3C 3D 3B 3E B C D F 3C 3D 3B 3F B C E F 3E 3C 3B 3F B D E F 3E 3D 3B 3F C D E F 3C 3D 3F 3E
Bracket
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Awards The following awards were given for the tournament: Golden BallSilver BallBronze Ball Cesare Casadei Alan Matturro Lee Seung-wonGolden BootSilver BootBronze Boot Cesare Casadei(7 goals, 2 assists) Marcos Leonardo(5 goals, 1 assist) Óscar Cortés(4 goals, 2 assists)Golden GloveFIFA Fair Play Trophy
Goalscorers
Final ranking As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
Marketing Development and preparation In early May 2023 - before the removal of Indonesia as the host, FIFA announced that the official song of the tournament would be "Glorious", performed by the Indonesian EDM group Weird Genius and featuring three other Indonesian stars: Lyodra Ginting, Tiara Andini and Ziva Magnolya. The remixed version of the song would later being used at the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup held later that year in Indonesia.
Broadcasting rights Live stream is available on FIFA+, while in Indonesia, available on Moji and Vidio, including replays.
Sponsorship FIFA partnersNational Supporters Adidas Coca-Cola Hyundai Visa Wanda Group Globant Inter Rapidisimo
Controversies
Protests against Israel's participation and Indonesia's removal as hosts
By finishing second in the 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, Israel qualified to the U-20 World Cup for the first time in history. However, Israel's participation is subject to political controversy due to Indonesia having the world's largest Muslim population and the two countries having no formal relations owing to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Given this, Indonesian Minister of Youth and Sports Zainudin Amali stated that FIFA required any country qualified for the U-20 World Cup shall play, and that the local security officers will provide security for the Israeli team.