U-17 World Cup May Be Out of Africa

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The United States under-17 men’s national team recently learned its opponents for the final round of qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. What remains up in the air is the location for the finals, which were supposed to take place in nine stadiums in Nigeria from Oct. 25 to Nov. 15.

Before the American men, who have played in every tournament at this age level, get to play in the finals, they must first face Canada, Honduras and Cuba in a round-robin group in Tijuana, Mexico, from April 21 to May 2. The top two teams in Group A and Group B (host Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Trinidad and Tobago) will advance to the finals.

And up until early this week, it appeared that FIFA would keep its commitment to host three international tournaments on the African continent, one year before the 2010 World Cup finals are scheduled to be played in South Africa. In addition to the U-17 tournament, FIFA will host the Confederations Cup in South Africa (June 14 to 28) and the U-20 World Cup in Egypt (Sept. 25 to Oct. 16).

But now those grand plans to put Africa center stage have taken a hit after one of FIFA’s inspection committees, led by Jack Warner, returned a less-than-favorable report on a visit this week to Nigeria. The group’s weeklong inspection of the nine locales Nigeria has proposed for the tournament has not gone well for the prospective hosts.

Contrary to his statements in the BBC report, Warner told FIFA.com: “I am pleased with what I saw and with my discussions with the governors of Enugu, Kano, Delta and Lagos states, and Alhaji Abdulrahman Hassan Gimba, the Honorable Minister and chairman of the National Sports Commission. There is a lot of work to be done but I am sure Nigeria will pull it off and be ready.”

As is the case with South Africa, any hint that the tournament in Nigeria will not happen as planned raises delicate questions for FIFA. While the World Cup is still more than a year in the future, there is little margin for error with the event in Nigeria. Any possibility that it might be moved to another country is hostage to the calendar and FIFA’s stubborn commitment to holding an international tournament in a country that probably is not ready.

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