2025 UEFA European Under-17 Championship/FIFA Under-17 World Cup

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

The group stage draw for the U17 World Cup is being held this Sunday, the 25th
https://inside.fifa.com/organisation...mblem-revealed


Ireland have been included in the fourth seeds, along with every other country who's never qualified. If you look at the teams in the same pot as us, it's actually not that bad - there are some teams in pots 2 and 3 I'd much rather face than the other teams in pot 4.
Interestingly, no group can contain two teams from the same confederation
Having a look at the teams in the other pots - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_F...ld_Cup#Seeding - there's a reasonable chance we could finish second or third, and qualify for the second round.

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Honestly we could win the group if we were lucky:

1st seeds:

Brazil and Argentina should be a lot better than us
Mexico, Senegal and Japan might be slight favourites against us, but wouldn't guarantee it
USA, Mali and Paraguay I'd have us as slight favourites
Qatar I'd back us to beat

2nd seeds are about half teams at about our level: South Korea, Chile, Colombia, Morrocco and half weaker teams like New Zealand, Honduras, Burkina Faso, Venezuela, Uzbekistan

3rd seeds: Ivory Coast and Tunisia could trouble us - but most teams shouldn't (Tajikistan, Indonesia, New Caledonia, Canada, Haiti, South Africa, North Korea, Panama, Costa Rica)

Draw for the first group stage is about to start, Ireland in pot 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YffIjRIcKsA
(embedding disabled for video)

First ever 48 team group draw and they left us hanging - we were the 48th and final team drawn out.

Seems like a decent draw, though I'll admit I know nothing of the quality of the Paraguay, Panama and Uzbekistan Under 17 teams.

Felt like we were getting a stickier group involving South Korea, Mexico and Ivory Coast for a long time with the way that pot was being repeatedly skipped over in the draw.

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Originally Posted by Eirambler

First ever 48 team group draw and they left us hanging - we were the 48th and final team drawn out.

Seems like a decent draw, though I'll admit I know nothing of the quality of the Paraguay, Panama and Uzbekistan Under 17 teams.

Felt like we were getting a stickier group involving South Korea, Mexico and Ivory Coast for a long time with the way that pot was being repeatedly skipped over in the draw.

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Right now, the only way to gauge it would be based on how they qualified, I guess.
Uzbekistan won the Asian Cup in some style, scoring 17 goals and conceding only 3 over six games.

Panama topped a qualifying group, containing Dominican republic, Aruba and Grenada.

Paraguay came fifth in the South American championship

Panama is our first game. Again, I know nothing of their ability but would guess that's potentially the weakest of the three opponents. Win that and we should be in decent shape. Uzbekistan are a bit of a coming football nation in Asia, so may be decent enough and Paraguay I'm guessing will be OK too. Still, win the opener and we should be getting out of that group.

FAI realigns men's under-age coaching structure to support FIFA U-17 World Cup campaign
https://www.fai.ie/latest/fai-realig...-cup-campaign/

Squad announced for the U17 World Cup

Big news is Billie O'Neill is left out despite scoring goals galore for Bray and despite the fact we basically only have one striker in the squad.

Other notable things are:

1) Ali Topcu doesn't make it. Very harsh considering there are 3 keepers. If you just ignore the fact he's tiny, then I genuinely think he's probably the best keeper available. Guessing 3 keepers are mandatory, otherwise I would have taken 2. Possible Corey Sheridan gets in because he's been capped for NI.
2) Mo Oladiti doesn't make it. Not surprising since he hasn't been in a squad in 11 months but back then he was the undisputed first choice right back and a lovely footballer. Also only one real RB in the squad. Billy Canny was also an option.
3) Could probably have gotten away with one centre half less since we have 4 (McDonagh, Leonard, Cullen, Spaight) and Solanke is comfortable there too. Spaight is a year up, which is interesting. Rafe McCormack was a viable option at CB, especially considering he was an u19 last month. I've always liked Sam Steward but he hasn't played since u16 so would have been a huge shock.
4) Midfield wise, can't really argue with much. Jay McEvoy is definitely good enough. He was with the 19s last camp. But all those 6 midfielders are good enough (you might switch Ozhianvuna and McAteer around in the midfield/forwards list).
5) Kovalevskis is lad for me who is on the borderline. Billy O'Neill has to make the squad, either as winger or striker. You either remove a defender or a keeper if possible or someone like Max. You could also add another striker if you consider O'Neill as a winger but there's no real standout for that slot (Tollett, Rooney, Idah, Akintintola are options - along with Shay Reid who was with the u19s last camp - or you could go down to the year below to Ben Mahon or whoever).

O'Brien confirmed that three goalkeepers are mandatory in this interview


Billy O'Neill wasn't in the first round squad a year ago, and only played an hour in the second round earlier in the year, against Poland.

ES, would you accept the possibility that he might not be in the squad for a reason which can't/won't be disclosed?

Anyone know if the Irish matches are being televised on free-to-air national stations?

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

Anyone know if the Irish matches are being televised on free-to-air national stations?

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ESPN have it on their schedule - https://www.espn.com/soccer/schedule...fifa.world.u17 - , but I can't see it anywhere else
Usually FIFA+ stream underage finals, but it's not on their schedule at the moment - https://www.plus.fifa.com/en/live-schedule/competitions

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025...world-cup-bow/

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Originally Posted by [B

RTE SPORT[/B]]
The Republic of Ireland's debut at the Under-17 World Cup will be shown live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player next month.

The young Boys in Green are set to face Panama, Uzbekistan and Paraguay between 5-11 November in Qatar.

Of the 21 players in the squad, 16 have come through the League of Ireland pyramid, with 12 currently lining out for LOI sides, with the remainder playing for Benfica, Hoffenheim, Venezia, Southampton, FC Lorient), Newcastle United, UD Almeria, Club Brugge and Burnley.

"The heat and humidity obviously will be a factor," manager Colin O'Brien told RTÉ Sport this week. "We've planned for that. We've added performance support staff to the backroom team.

"We've utilised the international windows. We qualified at the end of March and brought the players away to Croatia to really hot temperatures in June.

"Then we went to the Czech Republic in September, again, warm conditions. We were recently away in Pinar, in Spain for our final double-header.

"So they've been exposed to how to prepare to play in the heat.

"The supports are there for them within the squad and they've also been given plenty of educational tools to look at when they're with their club as well, so that they'll be prepared for it."

Should Ireland qualify for the knockout stages, broadcast details will be confirmed at a later date.

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Premier Sports are showing the rest of the tournament, you'd hope the other Ireland games will be free to air, even if it's just streamed on the player or on the news channel

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

Premier Sports are showing the rest of the tournament, you'd hope the other Ireland games will be free to air, even if it's just streamed on the player or on the news channel

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I took it to mean their collective debut, rather than the opening match vs Paraguay.

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

Relevant in the context of this discussion



https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025...to-euro-peers/

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Belgium is a bit outlier in that regard. Our minutes are in a much weaker league - not to dismiss them entirely, but do Belgium have another potential golden generation coming through that their players are getting so much game time?

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

Relevant in the context of this discussion



https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2025...to-euro-peers/

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I wonder how much this played into their success and would the squad be as strong if they were in academy sides etc. I don't watch enough underage football to have a strong opinion.

Interesting that Bayern didn't release Lennart Karl. Suppose Bradley could've done the same with at least one of the 3 lads who have been playing, Noonan being the obvious pick probably, although Max and Victor would be very useful right about now with our wide players struggling. Dreading Athens.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

Belgium is a bit outlier in that regard. Our minutes are in a much weaker league - not to dismiss them entirely, but do Belgium have another potential golden generation coming through that their players are getting so much game time?

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I think it's hard to draw a conclusion to be honest.

I saw Belgian underage elite level football and had a vested interest in it for a couple of years. It's incredibly technical, and physiologically it's probably better than where we are, but... despite genetics being 'different' on a whole, it's very light. Also, outside of the Jupiler League, the standard wouldn't be great, and under the Pro 2 league it's essentially provincial football which can be hit and miss.

If you are playing for a second string side which can't progress up the structure, the mentality is different to playing for a side with seasoned pros who are playing for medals, promotion, new contracts. the personal responsibility is higher.

Belgium playing Argentina at the moment, stream available on the FIFA+ service
Worth noting that Grady McDonnell is playing in the Belgian second division with Club Brugge's second team, Club NXT

Going to stick this to the top of the page while the world cup is on