The venue for the FIFA U20 World Cup, which will be held in May this year, has changed from Indonesia to Argentina.
FIFA announced on the 18th (Korean time) that Argentina had been selected as the host country for the U20 World Cup, and that the draw for the finals would be held in Zurich, Switzerland on the 21st.
Originally, the host country was set to be Indonesia, 스포츠토토but due to religious conflict, the host country was changed. Anti-Israel sentiment was strong in Indonesia, an Islamic country. The governor of Bali, Indonesia, insisted that the Israeli athletes enter the country, and a terrorist threat was detected against the Israeli athletes. Last month, FIFA revoked the hosting rights.
Shin Tae-yong, former coach of the Korean national team, was scheduled to lead the U20 World Cup held at home as he recently served as the Indonesian national team and youth team. However, as the tournament scheduled for 2021 was finally canceled after being postponed for two years due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), Shin coach also missed the finals of the big tournament. Since Indonesia had the right to participate as the host country, it also returned the right to participate in the tournament. Instead, Argentina, which failed to pass the South American qualifiers (South American U20 Championship), will join the finals.
South Korea is led by Kim Eun-joong. In March, he won a ticket to the U20 World Cup finals, which is given to the semifinals of the U20 Asian Cup. Korea has recently participated in the finals three times in a row. In particular, he won the runner-up in the 2019 Polish tournament, the previous tournament, and achieved the best performance in FIFA-sponsored competitions among Korean men’s national teams at each level, and Lee Kang-in won the Golden Ball (MVP).
A total of 24 countries are participating. In Asia, Korea, Japan, Iraq, and Uzbekistan take the lead. Korea is assigned to pot 2 in the group draw, and it is expected that it will be easy for Korea to advance to the round of 16, as there is a wild card system in which six teams with good grades among the top three in each group advance to the round of 16. The Pot 1 team Korea can meet is one of Argentina, Uruguay, USA, France, Senegal and Italy. England, New Zealand, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador in Port 2 were avoided.