Africa representatives Senegal and Burkina Faso have been handed a tough group in the FIFA U17 Worldcup draws Indonesia 2023 held on Friday, 15 September, Owosports.com.ng reports.
The draw was conducted by Jaime Yarza, Director FIFA Tournaments, with Stephen Appiah and Julio Cesar a former FIFA U-17 World Cup champion and finalist respectively acting as assistants.
Hosts Indonesia will contest the opening match of the tournament against Ecuador, while the group-stage draw also threw up a mouth-watering clash between the past two winners of the tournament, Brazil and England.
African champions Senegal were handed a tough group D paring alongside
Japan, Poland and Argentina. Burkina Faso were drawn in group E with European giant France, Korea Republic and USA.
The 24 nations were split into six groups of four. The top two in each group, along with the four best third-placed teams, will reach the knockout phase. Thereafter, a last 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, a third-place play-off and final will unfold.
Matches at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Indonesia 2023 will take place across four host cities including, Surabaya, Surakarta, Jakarta and Bandung. The tournament winners will be crowned in Surakarta on 2 December.
See full draws
Group A
Indonesia
Ecuador
Panama
Morocco
Group B
Spain
Canada
Mali
Uzbekistan
Group C
Brazil
IR Iran
New Caledonia
England
Group D
Japan
Poland
Argentina
Senegal
Group E
France
Burkina Faso
Korea Republic
USA
Group F
Mexico
Germany
Venezuela
New Zealand
