Fifa mulling new youth World Cup

If India are given the rights to host the under-20 World Cup in 2019, then it could well be the last edition of the tournament as Fifa is planning to close down both under-17 and under-20 World Cups from 2021 onwards.

Instead, the governing body of world soccer has chalked out a plan for a new tournament, youth World Cup, to be played annually in the under-18 or under-19 category.

Interestingly, in 2017, both the under-20 and under-17 World Cups in Korea and India, respectively, had been a huge hit with England winning both the tournaments.

A similar Youth World Cup has been planned in the women's category - to be played with 24 teams and to be hosted by two countries.

The issue was discussedduring Fifa's Executive Football Summit in Hong Kong earlier this month, which was also attended by India.

The Hong Kong meeting was the part of series of meetings to discuss strategic matters for the future of the game.

The final concept will be presented to Fifa council for approval in March.

"The world body feels under the new concept - youth World Cup - there will be more participation from the member nations. The plan is to make it a 48-team competition to be played every year and to be co-hosted by four countries," a source said.

Fifa is confident that an expanded final round of 48 teams in the proposed youth World Cup would encourage greater participation.

"Under the expanded tournaments, Fifa would look to strongly encourage co-hosting and the sharing of infrastructure requirements across multiple MAs (member associations) opening up hosting opportunities to MAs that may otherwise never have the chance to host a Fifa tournament on their own.

One of the reasons for Fifa's keenness to merge the two youth tournaments is to streamline the complications and inconsistency in age categories.