Baku welcomes first FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival™: global impact

Baku welcomes first FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival™: global impact More than 3,000 young footballers and officials from 189 nations have gathered in Azerbaijan. For many smaller associations, the inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival™ marks their debut on the big stage and forms part of a long-term project. For one week, Baku belongs to football’s next generation. The inaugural FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival™ has brought together more than 3,000 young footballers and officials from 189 FIFA member associations. Around 1,000 matches are scheduled before the final on 30 October at Baku Crystal Hall. A closer look reveals that there is more at stake here than results and standings: the tournament shows how FIFA aims to extend football development to every corner of the globe. FIFA President Gianni Infantino made this ambition clear at the opening ceremony. The tournament, he said, “truly unites the world”. People often say that football unites the world, he noted, but this is the first time that more than 3,000 footballers and officials from every corner of the planet have come together in one place. One figure stands out: 78 of the participating associations are taking part in a FIFA world tournament for the first time, at any age level. For them, Baku opens a door that has long been closed. John Gutierrez, President of the Philippine Football Federation, sees a clear message in this: “I think it tells us that the FIFA President (...) cares deeply about the welfare of other nations, not just the powerhouses of world football, but developing countries too.” The leadership, he added, “looks after the smaller countries, the smaller markets that want to reach the level of the bigger ones”. Access to the pitch goes hand in hand with support off it. For the 2027–2030 cycle, FIFA has proposed allocating USD 25 million to each member association. For many of the associations in Baku, these are crucial resources, helping to fund youth and women’s football, infrastructure and long-term development projects. The Turks and Caicos Islands show how this works in practice. “We are a very small country, with around 50,000 inhabitants,” says association President Sonia Bien-Aime Fulford. “Imagine our youngsters coming here to play against teams from countries they have only heard of, some of whose names they cannot even pronounce.” Even with far fewer resources, she explains, the FIFA Forward programme has already made it possible to build two full-size pitches, a beach soccer pitch, a futsal court and a new 27-room dormitory. In future, the association intends to target its funding even more closely towards women’s and youth football. The underlying idea is simple: investment helps countries nurture talent at home, while tournaments such as the one in Baku give these players the chance to test themselves internationally and see what is possible in world football. Marlon Glean, President of the Grenada Football Association, sees this as the approach’s key strength: “Since the President took office, he has invested heavily in areas with limited resources, in the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Oceania.” Referring to the development programme that accompanies the tournament, he added: “If you look at the Talent Development Scheme, which complements this competition (...), you can see that his thinking is well ahead of its time.” Bringing smaller and larger footballing nations together is a deliberate choice, reflected in the format too. Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development, explains the reasoning: “We wanted fewer players, not 11 against 11, because the gap between countries would have been too big. We also wanted shorter matches, so that everyone could play everyone else.” Smaller countries, he says, can “go home full of dreams and happy memories”, while also knowing what they need to work on. “When we say ‘give every talent a chance’, we are talking about opportunities,” Wenger adds. “Here they can come, play and discover that they have the quality needed to compete at the highest level.” Hussein Mohamed, President of the Football Kenya Federation, also sees the tournament as a starting point rather than a one-off event: “For the first time in football history, we have seen so many countries brought together in one place, as happened in Azerbaijan.” He described the festival as “a testament to President Gianni Infantino’s commitment to youth development programmes”. Infantino’s verdict was brief: the first edition was “exactly what we wanted”. And it does not end here. From 2028, the tournament will be held every year, for both boys and girls. Baku could therefore be remembered as more than just the inaugural edition. If access to tournaments and targeted local funding continue to go hand in hand, the festival could become a model for bringing football development to places it has rarely reached before. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.