Indone— um, Argentina 2023 Under-20 World Cup

[Sam]

Not sure how much coverage this has had abroad, but after the governor of Bali took exception to Indonesia letting Israel's team in, FIFA stripped Indonesia of the hosting of the tournament a couple of months ago. The new host nation needed to be one that hadn't qualified (so as not to bugger up the numbers), and Argentina was confirmed last week. Matches will be played in Mendoza, San Juan, Santiago del Estero and La Plata. The group stage draw was made this morning:

Group A
Argentina
Uzbekistan
Guatemala
New Zealand

Group B
USA
Ecuador
Fiji
Slovakia

Group C
Senegal
Japan
Israel
Colombia

Group D
Italy
Brazil
Nigeria
Dominican Republic

Group E
Uruguay
Iraq
England
Tunisia

Group F
France
South Korea
Gambia
Honduras

I don't know much about any of the teams, except that Javier Mascherano does not, going by Argentina's performance in qualifying, appear to be a very good manager. A few of my mates are making dark jokes about how Argentina will go out in the first round. Also Argentina want to call up Alejandro Garnacho and Manchester United don't want to release him (as it's an underage tournament they're not obliged to, and he'll be needed for the last couple of Premier League games and hopefully the FA Cup final). Mascherano's going to visit Old Trafford to beg next week.

Tournament kicks off on 20 May and the final is on 11 June.

[Sunderporinostesta]

Is this on TV over here?

[Sam]

I haven't a clue (perhaps unsurprisingly), but given UK TV channels' attitude to international competitions that aren't the Euros or World Cup in recent years, my guess would be that something – whether on TV or just streaming services/red button – might be announced quite shortly before it all kicks off. I heard that part of the reason the BBC have shown the latter stages of the Libertadores a few times in recent years, and picked up the 2021 Copa América, was that it got to quite late before they were happening and they were able to pick the rights up really cheaply. Obviously in this instance it's FIFA selling the rights rather than CONMEBOL (or rather, it's whoever sells FIFA's rights for them these days), so it's likely to be done a bit more competently, but it still wouldn't surprise me.

A small part of me is hoping I get a phone call in the next few weeks from the guy who contacted me about Copa comms a couple of years ago, so I can enjoy telling him to stick it up his arse. But with travel being less of an issue now they'll just fly some proper commentators down for it, unfortunately.

[ursus arctos]

Fox has the US rights (as part of their overall agreement with FIFA) but has yet to announce what they are doing with them.

I expect that FIFA are scrambling (the Broadcasti section of the Wiki is blank) and that announcements will, be late. I also expect that a number of broadcasters will do this remotely off a feed supplied by someone on site (a model that really took off during the pandemic, and is now widely used by the likes of Fox and ESPN over here).

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I'd be surprised if garnacho was fit enough to go. That injury looked very painful, and that it went entirely unremarked at the time says a lot about where premier league football has got to. (You could say something similar about evan ferguson's injury against chelsea as well)

[Sam]

I was surprised they called him up for that reason, but United are apparently hopeful he'll be back before the end of the season, even if only for a couple of matches.

[Sam]

I have attended an England match at a World Cup held in Argentina. It had a disallowed goal, a saved penalty, and was still somehow one of the dullest matches of football I've ever been at. Iraq had a hell of a lot of very vocal fans who all spoke surprisingly good Spanish.

[tee rex]

Was that the one with the double double-barrelled ref from New Zealand? Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh, no less.

[Tony C]

Good to see Fiji in there. It’s a rugby obsessed island and once union and league clubs have taken all the talented athletic youth I would imagine the football pool is pretty small. Looking at the draw does it mean they qualified at the expense of Australia? Quite a feat if so.

[Seven Saxon Kings]

Australia are in the Asian confed these days. They appear to have qualified with a win over New Caledonia.

[Southport Zeb]

Oceania has had two qualification spots since 2017*, so which ever nation loses to New Zealand in the final of the OFC Under-19/20 Championship gets to qualify.

Australia were beaten on penalties by Uzbekistan in the quarter finals of the AFC Under-20 Cup, with only the semi finalists qualifying.

* Two OFC teams participated in 2015, but New Zealand's qualification was as hosts.

[jefe]

Good to see Fiji in there. It’s a rugby obsessed island and once union and league clubs have taken all the talented athletic youth I would imagine the football pool is pretty small. Looking at the draw does it mean they qualified at the expense of Australia? Quite a feat if so.

And while we beat them 3-0, it took about 60 minutes to score, and the last two didn't come til late.

[Sam]

Was that the one with the double double-barrelled ref from New Zealand? Campbell-Kirk Kawana-Waugh, no less.

Sofascore just has him as Campbell-Kirk Waugh, but yes it seems it was.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I see Uruguay won it all in the end, beating Italy 1-0 in the final. Israel, whose presence in the draw caused all the initial fuss, won the third place playoff, which I presume is their best ever finish at a global men's FIFA tournament.