European champions face tough task
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Article summary
Portugal have been drawn in the same group as Brazil for the FIFA World Under-17 Championship.
Article body
European representatives Finland, Portugal and Spain today learned their FIFA World Under-17 Championship fate.
Warner presides
The draw for the 16-team championship, which runs from 13-30 August, took place in Helsinki and was presided over by Jack A. Warner from Trinidad and Tobago, a FIFA vice-president and chairman of the organising committee for the finals.
Testing group
The Finnish hosts are in Group A alongside China, Mexico and Colombia. Meanwhile, UEFA European Under-17 Championship winners Portugal were drawn in a testing Group C where they will face Yemen, Cameroon and Brazil.
Spain in Group D
Spain, who lost 2-1 against the Portuguese in the European championship final, are in Group D with the Korean Republic, United States and Sierra Leone. The top two countries from each group will qualify for the quarter-finals, meaning that the Portuguese and Spanish could meet in the last eight.
Iberian dominance
Despite the Iberian dominance of youth football in Europe the FIFA U17 crown has never been lifted by either the Portuguese or the Spanish. Indeed France, the 2001 winners in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Soviet Union, victors in Canada in 1987, are the only European countries to have won the tournament in its nine stagings so far.
Final landmark
The tournament will begin on 13 August and whichever two teams reach the final in the Töölö stadium in Helsinki on 30 August will have the honour of becoming the first countries in history to play a major international final on artificial turf.
FIFA World Under-17 Championship draw:
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