No knockout bracket. No team going home after two games. And roughly 1,000 matches in a week. The first FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival opens Saturday, Oct. 24, in Baku, Azerbaijan, and it looks nothing like the World Cups you know.
The boys' event brings 189 national teams to the Azerbaijani capital, split into 32 groups, according to the All India Football Federation. Players were born in 2011 or 2012. Matches are 8v8 with two 20-minute halves, and squads carry 14 players.
How the FIFA U-15 World Cup Format Works
Every team plays round-robin games in its group from Oct. 24 to 26. Group winners move into Tier A, and everyone else is sorted into Tiers B through F based on results. After a rest and cultural day on Oct. 27, teams keep playing placement games, with six tier finals on Oct. 30. The Tier A winner is the champion, but every tier crowns a winner and every team plays until the last matchday.
The South African Football Association, whose squad flew out Wednesday night, summed up FIFA's pitch as a way to maximize player development and match experience. In plain terms: a kid from a small federation who might never see a World Cup qualifier gets four or five meaningful international games in a week, plus more after that.
Nearly all of the games are at the Hovsan Competition Complex outside Baku. The opening match and the tier finals are set for Baku Crystal Hall, the arena built for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
Who Plays Whom in Baku
The draw mixes regions on purpose. South Africa's Group A has France, Kosovo, Estonia, the Maldives and Anguilla, five games in three days starting with the Maldives at 9 a.m. local time Saturday. India's Group K has Bahrain, Cameroon, Grenada, Laos and Senegal, opening against Laos. That kind of matchup, Grenada against Senegal or Anguilla against France, is the point of the event.
India coach Bibiano Fernandes named a 14-player squad, and the AIFF says the games will stream free on DAZN.
Why FIFA Built a U-15 Tournament
The FIFA Council approved the idea in December 2025, when Gianni Infantino announced festival-style events for boys and girls at age 15, open to all 211 member associations. Azerbaijan, which co-hosts the 2027 U-20 World Cup with Uzbekistan, was named host this June. Arsene Wenger, FIFA's Chief of Global Football Development, has framed it as a way to get meaningful games for players whose federations rarely play internationally.
FIFA covers flights and hotels for the delegations, each capped at 14 players and up to six staff. More than 3,000 people are expected in Baku.
A girls' edition is planned for 2027, and starting in 2028 both the boys' and girls' tournaments are scheduled to run every year. For American families who follow youth soccer, that is a new rung on the international ladder at an age when most kids are still playing club ball. Follow more youth soccer coverage on our BallerTube soccer page.
