India to host FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2022

FIFA has approved India as the host of the U-17 Women's World Cup in 2022 after the cancellation of the rescheduled 2021 edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U-17 Women's World Cup will be the second FIFA event that will take place in India after the U-17 World Cup in 2017.

India has been appointed host of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2022, the Bureau of the FIFA Council announced on Tuesday.

The competition, which was originally due to take place in 2020, was rescheduled to 2021 earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Moreover, the council has also appointed Costa Rica as the host of the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup.

Following due considerations of the situation, taking into account of all stakeholders and based on the recommendations of the the FIFA-Confederations COVID-19 Working Group, both the 2020 editions of the two women’s youth tournaments have been cancelled and that the hosting rights for the 2022 editions be offered to the countries that were due to host the 2020 editions.

This will be the second FIFA event that will take place in India after the U-17 World Cup in 2017. The decision is a result of the council taking a number of decisions related to FIFA competitions in light of the current global COVID-19 pandemic and its continuing impact on football.

The President of the All India Football Federation and Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Praful Patel stated that the change comes as "delightful silver lining" as the organising committee has a unique opportunity to build further on the work it had already put in.

“Following discussions with FIFA, we agreed that hosting the tournament without proper qualifications and without spectators led to more uncertainty, and it would have taken away from our objective of developing and promoting women’s football by hosting the competition in such circumstances. We thank FIFA for its support so far and now eagerly look forward to 2022. The journey we have made so far has given our women footballers confidence to compete at the highest level, and we are committed to steering women’s football in the right direction to ensure it achieves the heights it deserves,” Praful Patel stated.

FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020

The FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020, which was originally scheduled for December, has been moved to 2021. The competition will now be held between February 1 and 11 in Qatar as per the original host appointment by the FIFA Council in June 2019.

FIFA did not state if supporters would be able to attend any of the games noting only that “In line with FIFAs International Match Protocol, FIFA and the host country will provide the required safeguards for the health and safety of all involved.”