FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2020 postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic

What's the story?

The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2020, scheduled to be played in India between November 2 and November 21, has been postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak that has killed more than 50,000 people across the world.

In case you didn't know

The tournament was scheduled to be hosted between five different cities- Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar and Navi Mumbai- with the final set to take place in the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

This is the first time that FIFA has allowed a U-17 tournament to be hosted in more than four cities, thereby identifying the cultural diversity of India and recognizing the potential that the country has to turn into a football superpower if the right steps are taken.

The heart of the matter

The U-17 Women's World Cup is set to be postponed after the FIFA-Confederations working group set up by the Bureau of the FIFA Council has decided to make the tough call after a lot of deliberation. The working group has also recommended postponing the U-20 Women's World Cup 2020, scheduled to take place in August-September in Panama and Costa Rica.

The working group further recommended the cancellation of all international matches scheduled to take place in June 2020, with more decisions likely to be taken in order to not affect the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

AIFF and LOC Statement on the postponement of FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2020#U17WWC pic.twitter.com/nmdLelyqeG

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) April 4, 2020

A call on the qualifying matches for the U-17 Women's World Cup will be taken soon as only the Asia qualifiers have been completed, with Japan and North Korea making it to the finals alongside automatically-qualified India. Qualifiers are yet to be completed in Europe, South America, Oceania, Central America, as well as North America and the Caribbean.

FIFA has also thanked all the confederations for their support and stated that health will be the primary concern as they look to set a new date for all the postponed matches affecting the international calendar in 2020.

What's next?

FIFA's working group committee will soon be taking a call on the postponed tournaments and will set new dates once the coronavirus pandemic is controlled across the world.