Speid welcomes changes to U17 World Cup

Chairman of the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) technical committee, Rudolph Speid, has welcomed the new changes for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup. These changes will see an increase in participating teams as well as the competition being played every year as of 2025 instead of biennially.

Speid says the change is a “genius move” from the world’s governing body as it ensures that more young players will have the opportunity to represent their countries on the international stage.

He explained that the biennial format has caused a number of players to miss out on the chance to represent their country due to ageing out of the competition.

“The under-17 World Cup being played every year is actually a genius move mainly because usually a lot of countries tend to just use the 17-year-olds and then the 16-year-olds would have been left behind.

“What would happen is that they would be born in what you call the wrong year because at the next World Cup, they would be too old to play. So I think this is a genius move that gives every player under a certain age an opportunity to play in a World Cup which is really the dream of every football player,” Speid said.

Another major change for the U-17 World Cup will be an increase in participating teams.

For the men’s competition, the format will see an increase from 24 teams to 48 in total. The women’s competition will also see an increase in teams, moving from 16 to 24 teams. As a result, the various confederations will see an increase in the allotted slots for qualification which will be announced by FIFA at a later date.

Speid says the increase gives countries like Jamaica a greater opportunity to qualify and also to introduce players from an early age to the standards of international football.

“The increase in the number of teams in all the competitions again is significant because a lot of us developing nations really can’t get to catch up because of the limited number of teams that play in each competition,” he said. “But with more teams being added, there is a reduction in the gap in terms of who can qualify and gives Jamaica a better chance to qualify,” the Cavalier head coach said.

The changes for the age-group competitions will come into play following the 2025 FIFA Under-17 Men’s World Cup.