Draw for the 2026 U17 World Cup: Vietnam U17 team's opponent determined.

The Vietnam U17 team learned their opponents in the group stage of the 2026 U17 World Cup after the draw took place at 8:00 PM on May 21st.

The draw for the group stage of the 2026 U17 World Cup took place at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. This year's tournament in Qatar marks a historic milestone as FIFA expands the scale to 48 participating teams for the first time. Furthermore, the U17 World Cup has become an annual event, aiming to promote the development of youth football worldwide .

At the draw, the 48 qualifying teams were divided into 12 groups, each with 4 teams. FIFA allocated the teams into 4 different seeded groups, each with 12 representatives. Host nation Qatar automatically took the first spot in seeded group 1 along with the 11 best teams.

Vietnam U17 team participates in the World Cup for the first time. Photo: VFF

For the Vietnam U17 team , having never participated in the previous 5 U17 World Cups, coach Roland's team is placed in seed group 4, which is a disadvantage.

Notably, FIFA does not group teams from the same continental confederation together. Therefore, the Vietnam U17 team is not in the same group as major Asian teams like Australia U17, Japan U17, or South Korea U17. However, Nguyen Luc and his teammates could still face strong opponents such as Brazil, Argentina, Spain, and France...

As of the evening of May 20th, FIFA had determined 43 out of 48 teams participating in the 2026 World Cup. Asia has 9 spots, including U17 Qatar (hosts), U17 Saudi Arabia, U17 Tajikistan, U17 Australia, U17 Uzbekistan, U17 Japan, U17 China, U17 South Korea, and U17 Vietnam.

Vietnam's U17 team will qualify for the 2026 U17 World Cup after finishing first in Group C at the 2026 AFC U17 Championship, ahead of South Korea's U17 team. This marks the first time in Vietnamese football history that the country has participated in the biggest tournament on the planet for the U17 age group.

The 2026 U17 World Cup will take place in Qatar from November 19th to December 13th. The matches will be held at the Aspire Zone sports complex in the capital city of Doha.

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) thanks the clubs and training centers that have players from the Vietnam U17 team.

VFF President Tran Quoc Tuan, on behalf of the VFF Executive Committee, sent a letter of thanks to the clubs and football training centers whose players, coaches, and professional staff contributed to the U17 Vietnam team's victory in the Southeast Asian U17 Championship and qualification for the U17 World Cup. The VFF leader expressed his deep appreciation and gratitude to these units for their continuous support, close cooperation, and for creating favorable conditions for the players, coaches, and professional staff to focus on training and competing with the U17 Vietnam team throughout this period.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/boc-tham-u17-world-cup-2026-u17-viet-nam-xac-dinh-doi-thu-2517706.html