The U-17 Men’s World Cup is normally a hotspot for scouts and fans hunting the next big talent, but the 2025 edition carries added importance. FIFA is using the tournament to trial a 48-team format—the same expansion planned for the senior World Cup in 2026—and it also starts a new annual cycle of under-17 tournaments, the first of five consecutive editions to be staged in Qatar.
FIFA expert and former player Pascal Zuberbühler has described it as “the beginning of a new global rhythm in football,” suggesting the sport’s calendar is entering another distinct phase. While such claims may include some hyperbole, the shift to more frequent, larger youth tournaments does raise practical questions—most notably about the physical load placed on teenagers and what it means for Qatar as a long-term host.
Demanding schedule and injury concerns
Seventeen-year-olds face similar risks to other child athletes competing at elite levels. Sean Williams, a specialist in sports injury prevention, load management and growth and maturation at the University of Bath, warns that players reaching the final could play up to eight matches across roughly three and a half weeks—about one match every three to four days. Even as a single event, that’s a demanding schedule for athletes whose bodies are still developing, especially when recovery time is limited.
Disparities in preparation add to the challenge. Players from elite footballing nations such as Germany, England and Italy usually arrive with higher cumulative loads from year-round academy programs, domestic youth leagues and international fixtures. They benefit from advanced strength and conditioning support and experienced medical teams, but may also carry accumulated fatigue into the tournament.
By contrast, participants from emerging nations—many of which would not have qualified under the previous 24-team format—often come with lower training loads and fewer high-intensity games in their recent past. For those teams, the event can represent a sudden, steep increase in match demands. Rapid spikes in training or match exposure are generally considered a risk factor for injury, particularly for athletes unaccustomed to such volumes. These teams also tend to have less sophisticated load-monitoring systems and less experience managing additional stressors like long-distance travel and competing in Qatar’s heat.
Age-specific vulnerabilities further complicate load management. Williams points out that some apophyseal sites—growth-plate areas on the skeleton where muscles, tendons and ligaments attach, notably around the pelvis—may not be fully ossified in adolescents, making them more susceptible to injury during rapid increases in load.
What Qatar hosting means
Qatar will host the U-17 World Cup for the next five years, while Morocco will host the women’s U-17 tournament over the same period. The Gulf state has accumulated a dense portfolio of major sporting events in recent years, most prominently the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The broader Middle East is also playing a growing role in global football; for example, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is already involved in competitions and the kingdom is set to host major tournaments in the coming decade.
Kamilla Swart-Arries, a sport, tourism and event management professor at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, frames the U-17 tournament as part of Qatar’s long-term strategy to position itself as a world-class sports destination. She sees the event as a continuation of a strategy that dates back to the 2006 Asian Games and a series of world championships aimed at building a track record, maximizing facilities and creating lasting interest and opportunities for young people.
Swart-Arries does not expect the tournament to be an attempt to rewrite the narrative around the 2022 World Cup, which attracted intense global criticism over the treatment and deaths of migrant workers during stadium construction and for shortcomings on human-rights issues such as LGBTQ+ rights. Still, she acknowledges that international scrutiny has driven some reforms—particularly changes to labor laws—and believes that elite athletes visiting Qatar will likely depart with a more positive impression.
Hosting at Aspire Academy
The choice to stage the U-17 tournament primarily at Aspire Academy, with only the final in a stadium, reflects a smaller-scale, controlled approach. Swart-Arries says Aspire suits this kind of event: it allows Qatar to demonstrate organizational competence, learn from past events including the 2022 World Cup, and present a family-friendly atmosphere. Single-site formats can offer easier logistics and a concentrated fan experience—attendees might get day passes and families can find the environment accessible and entertaining.
Taken together, the tournament serves multiple purposes: it is a technical trial for an expanded World Cup format, a competitive stage where developing players face varied risks depending on their preparation, and a strategic tool for Qatar to reinforce its profile as a global sporting hub. How federations manage young players’ loads and how the tournament shapes perceptions of the host will be telling over the coming years.
Edited by: Matt Pearson
