After this year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be held in six different venues across India from October 6 to October 28, India may be the host to another marquee global football tournament, the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
AIFF supremo and vice-president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Praful Patel had tweeted out that the “Under-20 World Cup is our next mission.” Patel also mentioned that they (the AIFF) had also spoken to global football’s governing body, FIFA and had expressed their interest in a prospective bid for the tournament.
The Under-20 World Cup is our next mission. We have already spoken to @FIFAcom and told them that we are interested.
— Praful Patel (@praful_patel) March 25, 2017
This will presumably be the 2019 edition after the 2017 edition will be held in South Korea between 20 May and 11 June. Patel had also previously reiterated his desire to host the 2019 tournament in November if all things go smoothly with the preparations for the Under-17 tournament to be held later this year.
FIFA’s inspection committee has so far gone to four venues and has expressed concerns over three of them. India’s bid for the U20 World Cup will also depend upon how well they can pull off the U17 tournament and the FIFA committee’s report on inspection and preparations for the event.