Five bids to host the original 2021 tournament were submitted in 2019,^[3] and Indonesia was announced as the winning bidder on 24 October 2019.^[4] In December 2020, the 2021 event was postponed until 2023, with Indonesia remaining as host.^[5]

However, Indonesia was stripped of hosting rights on 29 March 2023 due to its refusal to bring the Israel U-20 national team in.^[6] Peru, Argentina and Qatar confirmed their interest in hosting the tournament.^[7] On 30 March, Argentina became the only country to submit an official bid.^[8][9]

On 17 April 2023, at a press conference jointly held by economy minister Sergio Massa, tourism and sports minister Matías Lammens, and the president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), Claudio Tapia, it was announced that Argentina would host the tournament,^[10] followed shortly after by a statement from FIFA confirming Argentina as the new hosts.^[11] Argentina will thus become the second nation to host the U-20 World Cup twice (having previously hosted it in 2001). Australia is the other nation that had hosted it twice (1981 and 1993).^{[citation needed]}

A total of 24 teams qualified for the final tournament. Teams qualified from six continental competitions.

The Dominican Republic and Israel made their debut in the competition; this was the Dominican Republic's first-ever qualification for a FIFA tournament. Having qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup via the Asian qualification, this was the first FIFA tournament for which Israel qualified as a European representative.

Argentina qualified for the tournament as the host country in place of Indonesia, even though they originally had failed to qualify through the 2023 South American U-20 Championship. Indonesia had also failed to qualify for the competition and lost its automatic spot in the WC when the tournament was moved to Argentina.

La Plata, Mendoza, San Juan and Santiago del Estero were the four cities chosen to host the competition.

The draw took place at 16:00 CEST (11:00 ART host time) on 21 April 2023 at FIFA headquarters in Zürich, Switzerland.^[12] The twenty-four teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts, Argentina, automatically seeded to Pot 1 and placed into the first position of Group A, while the remaining teams were seeded into their respective pots based on their results in the last five FIFA U-20 World Cups (more recent tournaments weighted more heavily) as follows:^[13][14][15]

• 2011 FIFA U-20 WC: 20% value of total points;
• 2013 FIFA U-20 WC: 40% value of total points;
• 2015 FIFA U-20 WC: 60% value of total points;
• 2017 FIFA U-20 WC: 80% value of total points;
• 2019 FIFA U-20 WC: 100% value of total points.

Furthermore, five bonus points were added to each of the six continental champions from the qualifying tournaments.^[15]

The draw started with teams from pot one being drawn first and placed in the first position of their groups (hosts Argentina automatically assigned to A1). Then were drawn the teams from pot 2, followed by pot 3 and pot 4, with each team also drawn to one of the positions within their group, No group could contain more than one team from each confederation.^[16] The ceremony was presented by Samantha Johnson and conducted by FIFA Director of Tournaments Jaime Yarza, with the former footballers Juan Pablo Sorín, from Argentina, and David Trezeguet, from France, acting as draw assistants.^[17]

The draw resulted in the following groups:^[18]

A total of nineteen refereeing trios (a referee and two assistant referees), six support referees, and eighteen video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.^[19] On 19 May, Swiss referee Sandro Schärer withdrew prior to the tournament due to an injury and was replaced by José María Sánchez Martínez.^[20]

Players born between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2007 (inclusive) were eligible to compete in the tournament.

Each team had to name a preliminary squad of between 22 and 50 players. From the preliminary squad, the team had to name a final squad of 21 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers) by the FIFA deadline. Players in the final squad could be replaced by a player from the preliminary squad due to serious injury or illness up to 24 hours prior to kickoff of the team's first match.^[21]

The top two teams of each group and the four best third-placed teams advanced to the round of 16.

All times are in local, Argentina time (UTC–3).^[22]

Tiebreakers edit

The rankings of teams in each group were determined as follows (regulations Article 17.7):^[21]

If two or more teams were equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings were determined by:

Group A edit

Group B edit

Group C edit

Group D edit

Group E edit

Group F edit

Ranking of third-placed teams edit

The four best third-placed teams from the six groups advanced to the knockout stage along with the six group winners and six runners-up.

In the next stage, the four third-placed teams were matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D according to the tournament regulations.

In the knockout stage, if a match was level at the end of 90 minutes of normal playing time, extra time was played (two periods of 15 minutes each). If still tied after extra time, the match would be decided by a penalty shoot-out.^[21]

In the round of 16, the four third-placed teams were matched with the winners of groups A, B, C, and D. The specific match-ups involving the third-placed teams depended on which four third-placed teams qualified for the round of 16:^[21]

Bracket edit

Round of 16 edit

Quarter-finals edit

Semi-finals edit

Third place play-off edit

Final edit

There were 154 goals scored in 52 matches, for an average of 2.96 goals per match.

7 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.