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

[elatedscum]

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.

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)

[tetsujin1979]

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)

[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.

[samhaydenjr]

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.

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

[Eirambler]

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.

[tetsujin1979]

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/

[tetsujin1979]

Squad announced for the U17 World Cup

[elatedscum]

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).

[tetsujin1979]

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.

[Kingdom]

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

[Kingdom]

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

[tetsujin1979]

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

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

[Kingdom]

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

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.

[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

[Kingdom]

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

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

[tetsujin1979]

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

[elatedscum]

Only 2 Dubs in a squad of 21 (16 born in Ireland). More lads from Donegal and Kildare than Dublin. You’d expect 5/16 to be from the capital based purely population size. Ade Solanke is from Newcastle, Co. Dublin - so if you just look at the city, Victor is the only player and you’d expect 4 (or 3.96 to be specific) to come from the city.

Does it mean anything? Simply random variance? Or are we losing the next Johnny Giles, Liam Brady, Wes Hoolahan, Paul McGrath, Damien Duff or Robbie Keane to either to the streets or to other sports or other pursuits?

Probably time to differentiate between Dublin clubs and Dublin kids.

You’d remember a few months ago, Ireland u15s (now 16s) had 17/20 players playing with Dublin clubs. However looking at this squad, players from Longford, Cavan, Kildare, Wexford and Tipperary have all been at Dublin clubs at different points on the way to the u17 World Cup.

It’s interesting how these things seem to work. Brody Lee left Rovers to go to Cork for more game time. The likes of Goodness Ogbonna and Mo Oladiti (who didn’t make the squad) also did the same to UCD and Waterford respectively. Oisin McDonagh went home to Wexford before signing in Italy.

Of the 16 irish born lads, 4 are playing abroad in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France and a fifth player has committed to signing for a team in England 14 months from now.

Looking at the 12 lads at LOI clubs, 7 are in the first division and 5 are in teams in the premier division. Most of the lads in the first division are playing regularly and most in the premier division, except Michael Noonan, are not playing much. Interesting to consider to what extent O’Brien went for lads playing senior football in the first division over lads not yet playing for a team like Pats or Shels or whoever.

Of the lads who were born in 2008, I think there’s probably 7 prem players, 1 first division player (Billy O’Neill) and 3 lads based in England who all felt they would have had a chance to make the squad and then didn’t.

[Kingdom]

Only 2 Dubs in a squad of 21 (16 born in Ireland). More lads from Donegal and Kildare than Dublin. You’d expect 5/16 to be from the capital based purely population size. Ade Solanke is from Newcastle, Co. Dublin - so if you just look at the city, Victor is the only player and you’d expect 4 (or 3.96 to be specific) to come from the city.

Does it mean anything? Simply random variance? Or are we losing the next Johnny Giles, Liam Brady, Wes Hoolahan, Paul McGrath, Damien Duff or Robbie Keane to either to the streets or to other sports or other pursuits?

Probably time to differentiate between Dublin clubs and Dublin kids.

You’d remember a few months ago, Ireland u15s (now 16s) had 17/20 players playing with Dublin clubs. However looking at this squad, players from Longford, Cavan, Kildare, Wexford and Tipperary have all been at Dublin clubs at different points on the way to the u17 World Cup.

It’s interesting how these things seem to work. Brody Lee left Rovers to go to Cork for more game time. The likes of Goodness Ogbonna and Mo Oladiti (who didn’t make the squad) also did the same to UCD and Waterford respectively. Oisin McDonagh went home to Wexford before signing in Italy.

Of the 16 irish born lads, 4 are playing abroad in Italy, Germany, Portugal and France and a fifth player has committed to signing for a team in England 14 months from now.

Looking at the 12 lads at LOI clubs, 7 are in the first division and 5 are in teams in the premier division. Most of the lads in the first division are playing regularly and most in the premier division, except Michael Noonan, are not playing much. Interesting to consider to what extent O’Brien went for lads playing senior football in the first division over lads not yet playing for a team like Pats or Shels or whoever.

Of the lads who were born in 2008, I think there’s probably 7 prem players, 1 first division player (Billy O’Neill) and 3 lads based in England who all felt they would have had a chance to make the squad and then didn’t.

Underage football should be worried in the city in my opinion - in the longer term anyway. Birth rate is dropping. Affordable housing is almost nil. Social housing is slow. The traditional supply lines of football in the city will dry up I believe. I currently live in a 'Corpo' area on the Northside (I feel dirty uttering that) - zero kids play football outside of whatever they do with their clubs.
My kids live in a 'Corpo' area on the Southside (I feel guilty uttering that) - very few kids play football outside of whatever they do with their clubs. I understand this is similar across the city inside the M50.

There's a problem in that teenagers don't like/don't want to be seen kicking football. It's not cool. Kids that are going out anf staying out, it's electric scooters, scramblers, and drugs. that's what I'm seeing and I reckon I see more than most.