FIFA Cancels U17 and U20 Men's World Cup Tournaments in 2021

  FIFA Cancels U17 and U20 Men's World Cup Tournaments in 2021 By Sampson Adedeji The world football governing body, FIFA, has canceled the Under-17 and Under-20 Men's World Cup tournaments scheduled for next year due to the pandemic. According to a press statement from FIFA, the next editions are now due to be staged in 2023, with Indonesia still hosting the U20s and Peru the U17s men's World Cups. FIFA says “the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present challenges for the hosting of international sporting events and to have a restrictive effect on international travel.” The governing body added “it became clear that the global situation has failed to normalize to a sufficient level to address the challenges associated with hosting both tournaments, including the feasibility of the relevant qualification pathways.” FIFA, few days ago announced cancellation of U17 and U20 Women's World Cup tournaments and now the men's underage tournaments have been canceled. This means, all age-grade world cup tournaments have been halted due to fear of the second wave of the pandemic. It is yet to be seen what CAF decision will be as countries prepare for the CAF age-grade African Nations Cup next year. The tournaments are supposed to be the qualifiers for their respective world cup qualifiers which have been canceled. Recently, the U20 national teams just qualified for the African Nations Cup billed for next year while WAFU and other regions are preparing for the U17 qualifiers early next year.