Less than two months after the start of the youth tournament, FIFA decided to remove the organization from the Asian country. He then assigned it to the South American.
The 2023 U-20 World Cup will be played in Argentina, as confirmed by FIFA on Monday, April 17. For example, the South American country inherits the headquarters less than two months after the start of the tournament, after the mother house of football decided to take the organization from Indonesia at the end of March, when everything was ready for the start of the tournament. the competition.
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WHY FIFA HAS THE U-20 WORLD CUP HEADQUARTERS FROM INDONESIA
The Asian country waited almost four years to host the Youth World Cup for the first time: in October 2019, it was designated as the venue for the event that was due to take place in mid-2021 and was due to take place in December 2020. are canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. At that time they confirmed from Zurich that they would respect his rights as an organizer for 2023, but everything changed at the last minute.
Last Sunday, March 26, with five days left until the group stage draw, the Indonesian Federation (PSSI) unexpectedly reported that the ceremony, which was due to take place in Bali on Friday the 31st, had been canceled and that FIFA had not made “any official reason” for making the decision. 72 hours later, on Wednesday the 29th, they issued a statement from the motherhouse confirming that Indonesia would permanently lose the venue for the tournament “due to the current circumstances”.
What happened? While the governing body did not provide details on the matter, the reasons that led to the determination are related to Israel’s participation in the tournament as one of UEFA’s representatives after finishing second in the European qualifier.
Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population in the world and as a nation maintains tense diplomatic relations with Israel, which does not formally recognize it as a state. For this reason, since the Israeli team earned their place in the tournament, demonstrations against their participation multiplied, both on a social level and in some government sectors.
After some protests in the streets of the capital Jakarta, the straw that broke the camel’s back for FIFA was Bali’s governor Wayan Koster’s formal request to the national sports ministry to ban Israel from playing matches in his province. As reported by the PSSI, as of that request, “the assurances issued by the provincial government itself” to be one of the tournament’s venues were cancelled.
In addition to FIFA taking away the organization of the tournament, FIFA reported that “possible sanctions will be determined later” for the Indonesian Federation for failing to honor commitments made to host the event.
WHY ARGENTINA WAS CHOSEN AS THE NEW LOCATION OF THE SUB 20 WORLD CUP
Once it was confirmed that Indonesia would not host the tournament, the AFA set to work to secure the venue for two main reasons: on the one hand, the AFA would be able to qualify as hosts for the tournament after being excluded due to sporting merit in January in South America and on the other hand, the organization would serve to strengthen the candidacy for the 2030 World Cup, which he presented together with Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay.
After gaining the support of the national government, the leadership led by Claudio Tapia took advantage of Gianni Infantino’s presence at the CONMEBOL Congress to present him with the formal candidacy. And from Asunción, on March 30, barely 24 hours after the announcement regarding Indonesia, the FIFA president announced: “Today, Argentina’s candidacy is the only one that has been presented formally and with statements of support. We will make the decision in the next two or three days. We all know Argentine football and we know that it can organize a competition of this level, it has very good chances, but we have to follow the process.”
Finally, after just over two weeks of administrative and formal difficulties, on Monday, April 17, they issued the statement from Zurich confirming the South American country as the new organizer of the Youth World Cup: ““FIFA is pleased to announce that the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup will take place in Argentina this year, so the country of the reigning world champions will open its doors to the great stars of the world of tomorrow,” said Infantino in the text.
Source: Goal