2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup

The 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup will be the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The tournament will be hosted by Poland between 23 May and 15 June 2019. It will mark the first time Poland have hosted a FIFA tournament and the first in Europe since 2013 in Turkey. Poland hosted the UEFA football events in the past including the UEFA Euro 2012 which co-hosted with Ukraine and the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

England won the previous tournament but will not defend their title after losing 3–0 to Norway in a play-off for the final qualifying place at the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Finland. England are the sixth consecutive champions to have failed to qualify for the subsequent U-20 World Cup.

The opening game and final will take place at the Stadion Widzewa in Łódź.

Host selection
The bidding process to host the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup was launched by FIFA in June 2017. A member association may bid for both tournaments, but they would be awarded to different hosts.

Candidate countries
Two countries submitted formal bids to host the tournament.

FIFA announced Poland as the successful hosts after the FIFA Council meeting on 16 March 2018 in Bogotá, Colombia. Poland won the bid over India a 9–5 voting result by 4 votes.

Qualified teams
Currently a total of 24 teams qualify for the final tournament, in addition to Poland who qualify automatically as hosts, 23 other teams qualify from six separate continental competitions. The slot allocation was approved by the FIFA Council on 10 June 2018.

Venues
Bielsko-Biała, Bydgoszcz, Gdynia, Łódź, Lublin and Tychy are the six cities to host the competition. Lubin (not to confuse with Lublin) ended up withdrawn from the list due to hotel capacity troubles and is replaced by Bielsko-Biała. Łódź will host the opening and final at the Stadion Widzewa.

Organisation
The emblem was unveiled on 14 December 2018. The emblem features a crocus, a flower that blooms every spring in Poland combined with the colors of the Polish flag, symbolising the new faces that will emerge to shape the tournament's trophy.

Grzywek, the official mascot was unveiled on 23 February 2019 one day before the final draw Grzywek is inspired by a Polish bison distinctive name comes from the Polish word for “mane” – the long and coarse hair that adorns the neck of this striking animal – and also symbolises the country’s pride at hosting its first ever FIFA competition.

The slogan and official song to be unveiled in April 2019.

Draw and schedule
The match schedule was unveiled on 14 December 2018, the same day as the official emblem.

The final draw was held on 24 February 2019, 17:30 CET (UTC+1), at the Gdynia Sports Arena in Gdynia. The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four teams. The hosts Poland were automatically seeded into Pot 1 and assigned to position A1, while the remaining teams were seeded into their respective pots based on their results in the last five FIFA U-20 World Cups (more recent tournaments weighted more heavily), with bonus points awarded to confederation champions. Teams from Pot 1 were drawn first, followed by Pot 2, Pot 3, and finally Pot 4, with each team (apart from Poland) also drawn to one of the positions within their group. No group could contain more than one team from each confederation.

Match officials
A total of 21 refereeing trios (a referee and two assistant referees), 6 support referees, and 20 video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.

Squads
Players born on or after 1 January 1999 and on or before 31 December 2003 are eligible to compete in the tournament.

Each team have to name a preliminary squad of between 22 and 50 players. From the preliminary squad, the team have to name a final squad of 21 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad can be replaced by a player from the preliminary squad due to serious injury or illness up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.

Group stage
The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advance to the round of 16.

All times are local, CEST (UTC+2).

Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in the group stage is determined as follows:


 * 1. Points obtained in all group matches (three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat);
 * 2. Goal difference in all group matches;
 * 3. Number of goals scored in all group matches;
 * 4. Points obtained in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 5. Goal difference in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 6. Number of goals scored in the matches played between the teams in question;
 * 7. Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction could be applied to a player in a single match):
 * Yellow card: −1 points;
 * Indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points;
 * Direct red card: −4 points;
 * Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points;
 * 8. Drawing of lots.

Ranking of third-placed teams
The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advance to the knockout stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up.

Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time will be played (two periods of 15 minutes each), where each team is allowed to make a fourth substitution. If still tied after extra time, the match will be decided by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winner.

In the round of 16, the four third-placed teams will be matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D. The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depend on which four third-placed teams qualified for the round of 16:

Sponsorship
{| class="wikitable"


 * Adidas
 * Coca-Cola
 * Hyundai–Kia


 * Qatar Airways
 * VISA
 * Wanda Group