The 2019 FIFA U20 World Cup is the 22nd edition of the tournament and, unlike the FIFA World Cup, it's played every two years rather than every four. Naturally the tournament is open to all qualifying national teams and features players under 20-years-old who all compete for glory and recognition as they look to take their careers to greater heights.
The first tournament was held in 1977 in Tunisia and was won by the Soviet Union. At the time it was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship and didn't change it's name until 2005 when it was rebranded as the FIFA U20 World Cup.
Image Source: fifa.com
The 2019 FIFA U20 World Cup is hosted by Poland and started on 23 May 2019.
A total of ten different nations have won the U20 World Cup with 36 nations having reached the semi-finals of the tournament. Argentina remain the most successful nation to have competed in the tournament and have won the FIFA U20 World Cup an astonishing six times in the tournaments short history (1979, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2007).
Image Source: usatoday.com
Currently, England are the defending champions after they won the 2017 tournament in South Korea. Through the leadership of manager Paul Simpson, England also topped their group which included South Korea, Argentina and Guinea.
Unfortunately, England won't be able to defend their title as they lost 3-0 to Norway in their qualifying playoff. Astonishingly, England are the sixth consecutive defending champion team to fail to qualify for the subsequent U20 World Cup.
Image Source: hindustantimes.com
The 24 teams that have qualified and will take part in the 2019 FIFA U20 World Cup are Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mali, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Tahiti, Ukraine, United States and Uruguay.
These 24 nations have been drawn into six groups of four teams. Each team will play against the other three teams in their group with the top two teams in each group and the four best third-placed teams going through to the round of 16. The knockout rounds will then begin followed by the quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place playoff and final.
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The U20 FIFA World Cup also presents great value for sports betting fans with many of the players yet to become established household names at big clubs. Analysing which players are in form could make a big difference in identifying winners and winning your own bets.
If you're interested in
sports betting and are excited to
place a bet on the U20 FIFA World Cup, you'll be able to find all the fixtures available at Betway with a range of exciting bet types.
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