FIFA U15 World Cup: Infantino invites all 211 member nations to launch

Gianni Infantino has confirmed plans for a new FIFA Under-15 World Cup that would invite all 211 member associations to take part. The first edition is scheduled to be held in Azerbaijan in late October, after FIFA announced the creation of the competition in June. Infantino presented the event as a major youth gathering rather than simply another tournament on the international calendar. More than 4,000 children are expected to come together to play football.

The FIFA president announced the plan in a video released on Sunday. He began by turning attention to the conduct of football administrators before linking the competition to the sport’s youngest players. “We, the football leaders, talk too much,” Infantino said. “Sometimes, maybe we should talk less and let the ball speak instead.” He then added that this meant allowing children to play, before confirming that the 211 FIFA countries would be invited to the first U15 World Cup.

The proposed format gives the event an unusually broad scope. Rather than limiting participation to a small field of established youth teams, FIFA intends to make every one of its affiliated associations eligible for the gathering. The project is therefore being framed as a global festival of youth, with players from across the organisation’s membership involved. Infantino described it as “a festival for children” and said the ambition was to make football “really global, in every corner of the world”.

Azerbaijan’s selection as host places the first edition at the centre of the plan, with the tournament due to take place towards the end of October. The available announcement does not set out the full competition format, the number of teams that would play in a match-based tournament or the method used to select the children. It does establish the scale of the invitation, however: all 211 associations are being asked to participate, creating a youth event far larger in reach than the traditional FIFA age-group championships.

The idea had already attracted attention before Infantino’s public confirmation. During the past year, he held discussions with private investors about whether an event modelled in part on baseball’s Little League World Series could be developed and commercialised. That comparison points to a competition built around a broad youth celebration, with the emphasis extending beyond the conventional structure of a senior World Cup. The project’s commercial possibilities have consequently become part of the debate surrounding its creation.

Infantino also defended the financial model needed to stage events of this scale. “This is why we need these resources, sponsors, broadcasters, everything we can do to reinvest 100% of what we generate in the game,” he said. His argument links commercial income directly to FIFA’s capacity to organise competitions and expand access to football. The U15 World Cup would therefore serve two stated purposes: bringing together thousands of young players and supporting the governing body’s wider aim of making the game more globally accessible.

The announcement comes while Infantino remains under pressure over the direction of FIFA. In early August, he abandoned a proposed commercial company that would have been open to private investors. That plan had generated strong opposition, and several federations and confederations have called for his departure. His latest youth competition is separate from that abandoned company, but the timing means it will be judged against the wider questions about FIFA’s governance, finances and the pace at which new projects are being introduced.

European opposition has added to the uncertainty around Infantino’s position. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin, one of his main critics, has said he will not stand against him in the next FIFA presidential election, scheduled for March 2027. Infantino is currently the only declared candidate. UEFA has also announced that it would boycott FIFA competitions, including World Cups, and has repeated that threat despite the withdrawal of the commercial-company proposal. Against that backdrop, the U15 World Cup gives Infantino a prominent project focused on youth, participation and FIFA’s global reach. The next concrete step is the organisation of the first edition in Azerbaijan in late October, with the 211 invited associations expected to form the basis of the event.