Korea begins hosting of FIFA Under 20 World Cup

The FIFA Under 20 World Cup has commenced in South Korea, with games to be played in six local cities - Cheonan, Daejeon, Incheon, Jeonju, Suwon and Jeju.

Part of the Republic of Korea’s ongoing hosting of major international sporting events, including the 2011 IAAF Athletics World Championships in Daegu, the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongchang and the 2019 FINA World Swimming Championships (also in Gwangju) the U20 World Cup is the fourth FIFA-sanctioned competition that South Korea will stage.

This follows the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup; the 2002 FIFA World Cup, which it co-hosted with Japan; and the 2007 FIFA Under 17 World Cup, making South Korea is the third country to host all four FIFA events, after Japan and Mexico.

Under the slogan ‘Trigger the Fever’, the 2017 tournament is also the 21st edition of the U20 World Cup and is the sixth time that the premier youth football tournament is taking place in an Asian country.

Starting last Saturday (20th May) and running until 11th June, the competition includes 24 participants who were divided into six groups of four teams at a draw on 15th March. The top two teams from each group, along with four best third-place finishers, will enter the knockout stage.

All of the tournament's 52 matches will be at existing stadiums in the host cities. Jeonju World Cup Stadium in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, some 240 kilometres south of Seoul, will host the tournament opener, while Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, some 40 kilometres south of Seoul, will stage the final.

The organisers, led by Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-gyu, are welcoming the participants with some 1,300 volunteers lined up to help operations. Some of them already got some experience when South Korea staged a test event in three cities in March.

The organisers have been working hard to promote the U20 World Cup as they hope South Koreans fill the seats for other national team matches. Since the biennial men's youth football championship was expanded to the 24-team format in 1997, the 2011 edition in Colombia had the highest average attendance with 25,191, while the 2013 U20 World Cup in Turkey had the lowest average attendance with 5,821.

For more information go to www.fifa.com/u20worldcup/

Korea's hosting of major events was explored in a feature in the September/October 2013 issue of Australasian Leisure Management.

Images: South Korea's U20 World Cup fixtures are bing played in front of capacity crowds (top).

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