Although official confirmation remains, which will surely be given by FIFA between tomorrow and Monday, Argentina will host the Under 20 World Cup, which will take place between May 20 and June 11. In this way, the Selection will have a quota for the contest, after the poor performance in the South American, in which the team directed by Javier Mascherano had not obtained any place for the competition.
Yesterday, the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, confirmed that Argentina is the only country that formally presented and with the backing of the Government a project to organize the U-20 World Cup, which was going to take place in Indonesia.
The top leader of the soccer governing body is in Asunción to participate in the Conmebol Congress that, among other issues, will re-elect Alejandro Domínguez as president.
Infantino and Domínguez, after a meeting – in which the president of AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia also participated, gave a press conference and advanced the Argentine candidacy. The head of the South American Confederation delivered the papers to the FIFA president and made the Argentine project official.
good chances
In this context, Infantino, in the absence of officialization, announced that “Argentina has very good chances of being the organizer”, something that Domínguez himself also supported in the joint press conference. “Infantino knows that Argentina has my vote. Because it was proposed, because I believe in its potential and because you have to have everything ready for May. They have it,” he expressed.
The endorsements from Argentina that Infantino mentioned are those of Claudio Tapia, president of the AFA, Sergio Massa, Minister of Economy, and Matías Lammens, Minister of Tourism and Sports. The weekend or Monday would be the formal announcement.
Indonesia lost the venue for the tournament after protests by local governors against the Israel team. Although FIFA did not disclose the official reasons, the authorities of the Asian country understood that political interference was a strong enough argument for them to remove the responsibility of hosting the youth tournament.
In the last hours, Argentina added vital support in this desire to stay with the emergency organization of the Under 20 World Cup. “Israel is in favor of Argentina being the host, it deserves it as world champion. It is a very beautiful and large country, with excellent facilities. Hopefully they can also organize the 2030 World Cup, stated the Israeli Ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela.
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FIFA clarified that it intends to announce the new host country “as soon as possible” and assured that “the dates of the tournament remain unchanged for the moment.”
Immediately, Infantino undertook a trip to Paraguay to be at the Conmebol Congress and at the same time meet with senior executives from the continent, taking into account that Argentina presented its intention to become an emergency venue days ago if they finally removed responsibility from Indonesia.
Due to FIFA regulations and to guarantee the good condition of the playing fields, stadiums that are used at the same time to play local leagues cannot be used as tournament venues.
For this reason the options are reduced, but there are those that sting in point are: the Ciudad de La Plata Stadium; the San Juan Bicentennial Stadium; the La Pedrera Stadium in San Luis; the Madre de Ciudades Stadium in Santiago del Estero and the Malvinas Argentinas Stadium in Mendoza (if Godoy Cruz plays local in his).
Reinforcement
In the South American U-20 tournament that took place in Colombia at the beginning of the year, the Argentine team led by Javier Mascherano could not pass the first stage and ran out of chances to play in the World Cup, despite the fact that their squad had important players.
This failure led to the resignation of Mascherano as DT, despite attempts to convince him to continue in charge of the president of AFA, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia,
However, a meeting he had with the coach of the senior team, Lionel Scaloni, made him change his mind.
In this case, Mascherano, who is in Qatar with his representative and one of his collaborators (who handle a proposal from Al Rayyan from the Middle Eastern country), has already defined that if the Argentine Under 20 team receives the place to play the championship overall, he will reverse his resignation and continue to be the coach.
In the midst of this scenario, and with Argentina participating in the World Cup, Mascherano would return to the ring to have revenge. In addition, the Jefecito would have the chance to have high-level players, including some who were not loaned to the South American and who could now make a difference in the U-20 World Cup.
Although some of the players from Europe have already been called up to the National Team by coach Lionel Scaloni, many of them could not participate in the last U-20 South American due to a refusal from their clubs.
According to Juan Martín Tassi, official scout of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), there is a base in AFA of around 400 U-20 players who are scattered around the world for different reasons such as the departure of their parents from Argentina due to the 2001 crisis, relatives of exiles from the last civic-military dictatorship, children of former soccer players who made a career abroad, parents who took their children from Argentine clubs through the famous parental authority or, simply, parents who emigrated for no reason and formed a family in other nations.
The stars that are acting in Europe and that the Sub 20 could count on are: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United); Matías Soulé (Juventus); Luka Romero (Lazio); Valentin Carboni (Inter); Maximo Perrone (Manchester City); Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton) and Nicolás Paz (Real Madrid).
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
