The 2026 FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival will be the inaugural edition of the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival, an international youth football competition organised by FIFA; the initial edition will be for players born in 2011 or 2012. It will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, with matches scheduled from 24 to 30 October 2026.
The competition is tentatively open to all FIFA member associations; 190 teams from six confederations have been drawn into 32 groups. Matches are played in an 8v8 format. Teams first play a round-robin qualification stage; their results then determine which of six performance tiers they compete in during the tournament stage. No team is eliminated, and a winner is crowned in each tier, with the winner of the top tier honoured as the champion of the tournament.
The tournament was created following the FIFA Council's decision in December 2025, as part of FIFA's commitment to youth football development. Azerbaijan was appointed host by the Bureau of the FIFA Council on 25 June 2026. A girls' edition is scheduled for 2027, and boys' and girls' tournaments are planned to take place annually from 2028.
Background Ahead of the FIFA Intercontinental Cup final in Doha, Qatar, on 17 December 2025, the FIFA Council met and took a number of decisions on youth football and governance. At the same meeting, FIFA President Gianni Infantino announced the creation of new festival-style tournaments for boys and girls aged 15, open to all 211 member associations, as part of an initiative to give every talented player an opportunity. The first tournament would be held for boys in 2026 and the second for girls in 2027, with separate competitions for both categories from 2028.
Arsène Wenger, FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, said the tournament is intended to give young players from associations with limited international opportunities meaningful matches against different styles and football cultures, and to encourage member associations to keep investing in youth development. FIFA describes the competition as addressing the difficulty many associations face in qualifying for FIFA tournaments.
Commercialisation talks According to a report by The Athletic published on 20 August 2026, Infantino held talks with private investors about a commercially developed under-15 tournament for all 211 members, inspired by baseball's Little League World Series. One proposal, drawn up by Juan Carlos Rodríguez, a former commissioner of the Mexican Football Federation, and other business figures, was backed by Eldridge Industries, a holding company chaired by Todd Boehly. It envisaged staging the event at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Florida, with options to hold the opening and closing ceremonies at Disney theme parks, and talks were held with ESPN, the broadcaster of the Little League World Series. Infantino was also reported to have considered an opening match between Israel and Palestine, an idea that was not part of that proposal. The commercial plans were shelved shortly before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and FIFA organised the competition itself.
Host selection and preparations FIFA stated that its decision to appoint Azerbaijan followed an assessment of the country's sporting and general infrastructure, and noted that Azerbaijan had already been appointed to co-host the 2027 FIFA U-20 World Cup with Uzbekistan, describing the U-15 event as offering "a sense of strategic continuity". Azerbaijan had previously hosted the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the 2019 UEFA Europa League final and matches at UEFA Euro 2020.
On 27 July 2026, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on hosting the tournament, entrusting its coordination to the organising committee of the U-20 World Cup, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Samir Sharifov. The committee discussed preparations for both the U-15 and U-20 tournaments at a meeting on 5 August 2026.
FIFA is covering the cost of air travel to Azerbaijan and hotel accommodation for the participating national teams. Each team's delegation consists of 14 players and up to six staff members, and more than 3,000 players, coaches and officials are expected to take part. Around 250 volunteers will help deliver the tournament; the volunteer programme, organised by FIFA and the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan, opened for registration on 10 September 2026.
Visual identity The tournament's visual identity, described by FIFA under the theme "one grid, a thousand stars, one World Cup festival", is built around a grid of colourful squares and circles intended to evoke a playground and a festival, and to represent the diversity of the participating cultures.
Venues All matches will be played in Baku. Almost all matches will be held at the Hövsan Competition Complex, where the match schedule lists ten pitches, each with an A and a B pitch, allowing 20 matches to be played simultaneously; the opening match and the six tier finals will be played at Baku Crystal Hall. The Hövsan Competition Complex is located in the Hövsan settlement and was reported in August 2026 to be under construction, on a 12-hectare site; after the tournament its pitches are to become a youth football academy.
Baku Hövsan Competition Complex Baku Crystal Hall Pitches: 20 (10 pitches, each with an A and a B pitch) Capacity: 12,000 (seated); 27,000 (with standing room) Qualification and tournament stages Opening match (24 October) and tier finals (30 October)
Format The competition is divided into a qualification stage and a tournament stage. In the qualification stage, teams are placed in groups that provide diverse sporting and regional representation and play a round-robin; each team plays four to five matches. In the tournament stage, teams play a further four to five matches, determined by their results and their subsequent tier placement.
The 191 teams were drawn into 32 groups: 31 groups of six teams and one group of five (Group I). The qualification stage consists of 475 matches according to the official schedule. Three points are awarded for a win and one for a draw. A team's position in its group determines the tier it enters for the tournament stage: group winners are placed together, runners-up together, and so on. The second stage consists of six performance tiers; every team continues to play until the final matchday, the winners of each tier are crowned, and the winner of Tier A is honoured as champion of the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival. Within a tier, matches follow a cross-elimination system, in which winners meet winners and losing teams meet other losing teams. There is no extra time; drawn matches are decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Match rules Matches are played 8v8, with eight players per side including the goalkeeper, in two halves of 20 minutes with a five-minute half-time interval. The pitch measures 68 by 47 metres and uses full-size goals (7.32 by 2.44 metres); earlier reports gave the pitch width as 50 metres. Each team may register 14 players, born in 2011 or 2012. According to a July 2026 report, teams must include at least two goalkeepers among their registered players; substitutions are unlimited and rolling; throw-ins are replaced by kick-ins; offside applies only close to each goal, with offside lines 23 metres from the goal lines; and each match is officiated by two referees, each responsible for one half of the pitch.
Match schedule All kick-off times are local (AZT, UTC+4) and subject to change. On matchdays, the first kick-off at the Hövsan Competition Complex is at 09:00 and the last at 20:45; up to ten matches are scheduled per pitch each day. FIFA said that almost 1,000 matches would be played across six matchdays.
Date Day Activity Matches 22 October Thursday Arrival day – 23 October Friday Training day (to be confirmed) – 24 October Saturday Matchday 1 – qualification stageOpening ceremony and opening match (Baku Crystal Hall) 93 at Hövsan, plus the opening match 25 October Sunday Matchday 2 – qualification stage 188 26 October Monday Matchday 3 – qualification stage 188 27 October Tuesday Rest day – 28 October Wednesday Matchday 4 – tournament stage 188 29 October Thursday Matchday 5 – tournament stage 188 30 October Friday Matchday 6 – tournament stageSix tier finals, awards and closing ceremony (Baku Crystal Hall) 88 at Hövsan, plus the six tier finals 31 October Saturday Departure day –
Participating teams All entered teams were placed directly into the qualification stage; there was no qualifying competition. The associations represented by confederation are listed below.
+ Participating teams (190) AFC(Asia)45 teams CAF(Africa)53 teams CONCACAF(North, Central America and Caribbean)34 teams CONMEBOL(South America)10 teams OFC(Oceania)11 teams UEFA(Europe)37 teams
According to the Associated Press, 37 of UEFA's 55 member associations were in the draw, with Ukraine not involved; Germany and the Netherlands will also not play, and the United States and North Korea are also missing.
+ Teams that did not enter (20) AFC(Asia)1 team CAF(Africa)0 teams CONCACAF(North, Central America and Caribbean)1 team CONMEBOL(South America)0 teams OFC(Oceania)0 teams UEFA(Europe)18 teams
Russia and political discussions Because the competition is open to all FIFA member associations, the Russian Football Union was able to enter a Russian U-15 team, even though Russian senior and youth national teams have been excluded from FIFA and UEFA competitions since 2022. The permission applies only to a competition held under the FIFA banner and does not extend to UEFA's bans; in autumn 2023, UEFA reversed a decision to allow youth teams to compete under neutral status after pressure from other federations.
Russia was included in the draw and placed in Group AE with Turkey, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Sudan. It is the first FIFA competition in which a Russian team has been involved since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. According to the Russian Football Union, the team will compete under its national flag and anthem.
Ukraine, which is not taking part, urged other associations to boycott the tournament; its minister of youth and sports, Matvii Bidnyi, said Russia's inclusion legitimised a "terrorist state", and a Ukrainian statement thanked Iceland and Germany for declining to take part. The Ukrainian Association of Football had earlier said it would withdraw from any tournament featuring the Russian team.
Draw The 191 teams were drawn into 32 groups, named Group A to Group AF. A simple pre-tournament ranking, combining the performance of each association's senior national team with the recent participation and results of its youth national teams, was used to support balanced group formation. The groups became known on 17 September 2026, with FIFA announcing the draw and match schedule publicly the following day. Azerbaijan, as hosts, are in Group AF.
Qualification stage The qualification stage will be played from 24 to 26 October 2026 at the Hovsan Competition Complex in Baku, with the opening match at Baku Crystal Hall, followed by a rest day on 27 October. Each team plays others in its group once. No team is eliminated: final position in the group determines which tier it enters in the tournament stage. Group I contains five teams, and so has no sixth-placed team. All times are local, AZT (UTC+4). Fixtures are as published in FIFA's match schedule dated 16 September 2026 and are subject to change.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Group G
Group H
Group I
Group J
Group K
Group L
Group M
Group N
Group O
Group P
Group Q
Group R
Group S
Group T
Group U
Group V
Group W
Group X
Group Y
Group Z
Group AA
Group AB
Group AC
Group AD
Group AE
Group AF
Tournament stage