9:41 PM: The draw ceremony for the 2026 U17 World Cup finals ends.
21:40: U17 China appears in Group H, U17 Algeria appears in Group J and U17 Serbia enters Group L.
21:38: U17 Jamaica enters Group E, U17 Cuba appears in Group F. U17 Romania enters Group K and U17 Tanzania will compete in Group I.
21:34: U17 Vietnam enters Group G with U17 Mali, U17 New Zealand and U17 Belgium.
21:32: U17 Costa Rica appears in Group I, U17 Cameroon plays in Group K and U17 Honduras enters Group L.
9:30 PM: U17 Fiji into Group H, U17 Montenegro into Group J and U17 New Zealand into Group G.
21:28: U17 Haiti enters Group D, U17 Tajikistan appears in Group F and U17 Ivory Coast enters Group E.
9:26 PM: Group 3 draw begins. U17 Panama appears in Group A, U17 New Caledonia appears in Group B, U17 Denmark will play in Group C.
21:24: U17 Venezuela enters Group K, U17 Colombia enters Group L and U17 Ireland will be in Group I.
9:23 PM: U17 Belgium enters Group G, U17 Morocco enters Group H and U17 Chile appears in Group J.
9:22 PM: U17 Egypt falls into Group A, U17 Ecuador into Group B. U17 Saudi Arabia into Group D, U17 Croatia into Group F and U17 Uzbekistan appears in Group E.
9:21 PM: Starting to draw the teams in Group 2. The first vote belongs to U17 Australia and this team will be present in Group C.
21:18: U17 USA enters Group J, U17 Mexico enters Group K and U17 Japan will play in Group L.
21:17: U17 Mali enters Group G, U17 Spain enters Group H, and U17 Brazil appears in Group I.
9:16 PM: U17 France is in Group D, U17 Italy is in Group E, and U17 Senegal will play in Group F.
21:15: U17 Korea enters Group B, and U17 Argentina falls into Group C.
21:14: Host U17 Qatar is defaulted to Group A with position A1.
9:11 PM: The official draw process begins.
9:06 PM: In the video shown, FIFA President sent greetings and wished the teams success at the 2026 U17 World Cup.
9:02 PM: The organizers are showing a video introducing the teams that won tickets to the 2026 U17 World Cup.
9:01 PM: The draw for the group stage of the 2026 U17 World Cup finals begins.
Information before the draw
The draw ceremony for the group stage of the 2026 U17 World Cup took place on the evening of May 21 at FIFA headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland), marking a historical milestone when U17 Vietnam participated in the world youth playground for the first time.
According to FIFA's grouping principle, teams from regional federations will be maximally limited from being in the same group. This means that U17 Vietnam will not have to face strong representatives of Asia such as U17 Japan, U17 Korea or U17 Australia right from the group stage.
However, coach Cristiano Roland's team still faces the risk of falling into a difficult group when they may face championship contenders from South America and Europe such as U17 Brazil, U17 Argentina, U17 Spain or U17 France.
U17 Vietnam won the right to participate in the 2026 U17 World Cup after an impressive performance at the 2026 AFC U17 Championship finals. The Vietnamese youth team topped the group with victories against U17 Yemen and U17 UAE, thereby surpassing even U17 South Korea to win a ticket to the quarter-finals and participate in the biggest youth football festival on the planet for the first time.
Having never participated in any U17 World Cup in the period used by FIFA to calculate seed ranking points, U17 Vietnam is ranked in the No. 4 seed group. This is a certain disadvantage in the draw process when the team is likely to meet opponents who are rated higher from the remaining seed groups.
Before the draw, FIFA also attracted attention when announcing the seeded groupings with errors. Although officially qualified for the 2026 U17 World Cup, U17 Vietnam and U17 China did not appear in the posted list. Meanwhile, U17 Indonesia and U17 Yemen were named even though they did not pass the qualifiers. The errors afterwards attracted many opinions from fans and the media.
