During a milestone year of footballing expansion and innovation, and as the game becomes increasingly global, the scope of the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival 2026™ still stands out. The statistics are staggering and unprecedented.

A remarkable 189 U-15 boys’ teams – representing 90% of FIFA’s membership – have gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan for an event that easily surpasses every predecessor (at every level) in size and participation. Approximately 950 games are being contested over just six match days, filling the 20 pitches at the custom-built Hövsan Competition Complex with non-stop colour and excitement.

Close to 4,000 players, coaches and officials are involved, and all will stay until the end of the inaugural tournament thanks to a novel and inclusive format which sorts every team into an appropriate performance tier following the group stage. Following the knockout rounds, the tier finals will be played on 30 October at Baku’s Crystal Hall arena, which will provide 12 nations with a deserved spotlight at the conclusion of a brisk and busy week.

“The scale of this tournament is amazing,” FIFA Youth Tournaments Manager Gian Keller said.

It might be even more amazing behind the scenes. Those nearly 4,000 players, coaches and officials need to be transported, housed and fed. Many will be traveling abroad for the first time, and all will be FIFA tournament debutants (78 nations will be participating in their first FIFA event).

Ensuring that their stay is a fun and constructive one, and that social and developmental opportunities are plentiful both on and off the pitch, is as much a part of the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival™ as keeping score. The jaw-dropping numbers and logistics – imagine 13,000 meals per day, or a fleet of 10 buses making hourly return trips between the Competition Complex and the Athletes’ Village – should feel like trivial background to an experience designed to be personal, accessible and uplifting for each individual player.

“This is the first edition of this tournament. I really hope that everything goes well because we are working very hard to deliver this tournament, together, also, with our colleagues from Azerbaijan, from the Azerbaijan Federation [Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan], and the local organising committee,” said Roberto Grassi, FIFA’s Head of Youth Tournaments.

Naturally, a lot of that joy and excitement has been happening on the pitch. To accommodate those 189 teams and approximately 950 matches, FIFA constructed the Hövsan Competition Complex east of downtown Baku. Work began in mid-July, and the 20 fields, each of which measures 68m x 48m, were ready for kick-off on 24 October. As games are played simultaneously across the facility, a boisterous, festival atmosphere is generated for athletes and spectators alike.

“You can stand on the complex and see four different teams from four completely different parts of the world on just two pitches,” said Amit Desai, a High-Performance Strategy Consultant to FIFA who works with Arsène Wenger’s Global Football Development division. “It’s a festival as much as it is a (FIFA) World Cup.”

The 40-minute, 8v8 matches feature regulation-size goals and kick-ins rather than throw-ins, ensuring that the environment “promotes more ball touches per player, and really gives the players the best chance to test their decision-making and skills on the stage as well,” Desai added.

Maximising opportunity is what the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival is all about, and that mission extends to the innovative format. Rather than heading home following the group stage, teams that failed to reach the championship bracket remained in Baku to play similarly-placed teams in one of five additional consolation tournaments, meaning that maximum engagement and incentive remained for every promising participant.

“It is an amazing journey for these players. Having a U-15 (FIFA) World Cup & Festival as an opportunity for them to begin that journey to high-performance football is something that I think they'll remember forever,” said FIFA Technical Expert Michael Findlay, who also coaches the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines senior national team.

“It gives us, also, an opportunity to gauge exactly what that journey looks like from a technical point of view, structurally, and how these countries are developing the next generation of elite players that we hopefully will see one day at a senior (FIFA) World Cup.”

Even though the 189 teams could be playing multiple matches per day, there is still more time spent off the pitch than on it. In Baku, FIFA made sure that time was put to good use. Social and educational touch points were abundant.

Participants’ lives off the field are centred on six dedicated buildings at the Athletes’ Village, a facility near Boyukshor Lake that was used during the 2015 European Games.

“The number of the delegation members that we have now in the village is almost equal to the smallest country we have participating, which is Montserrat,” FIFA Accommodation Manager Dima Alhattab said. “It is amazing that these countries are getting the opportunity to come here to participate in a (FIFA) World Cup tournament event and get to know other teams and play together.”

No detail was ignored. Teams from countries which speak similar languages were assigned to neighbouring rooms, “so they can mingle together and have the opportunity to get to know each other and make friends,” Alhattab said. Separate apartments were reserved for female staff, and dedicated eating, study and recreation areas were created for all.

In addition, “learning corners” offer players an opportunity to speak to FIFA experts, including the safeguarding team, and to discover about the football world.

“We know that some of these players won’t go on and play at a professional level, but they’re still on a high performance programme within their Member Associations. And what we wanted to do was give them the foundation, if you like, for some of their education,” FIFA Senior Event Safeguarding Manager Gary Bye said.

Players can sign up for programmes focusing on internet safety, fair play and sporting behaviour, the FIFA World Cup experience, and the player development pathway (including the FIFA Talent Development Scheme).

“We also want them to tell us what they’re thinking about and what their needs are about, and really hitting on some of the really important things about development as a human being. Some of these players have not been on an airplane before. Some of these players have not left their community before,” Mr Findlay said.

“This is an enormous opportunity for them to use football as a vehicle to grow and set some standards but, more importantly, probably motivate themselves to be better.”

Mr Bye emphasised, “These are all children and the whole idea is to release that pressure and make sure they have a great experience whilst they’re with us.”

Setting and then overseeing the stage for that great experience falls to FIFA’s Team Services division, which works closely with participating Member Associations (MAs) and a variety of functional areas (like transport and catering) to make sure that players, coaches and delegations have a smooth experience from start to finish.

“In the preparation, we had a team working a lot, very hard, [for] two (to) three months to prepare all of this,” FIFA Senior Team Services Manager Sophie Laporte said. “When we say we’re preparing and it’s a lot of work, we’re talking here about more than 11,000 emails that were exchanged between the Member Associations and Team Services, to really ensure that we provide them (with) the information they need to be ready to come to Baku with everything they need.”

She added, “To see their faces when they see this beautiful Athletes’ Village is worth a lot. And I think this is where we understand the purpose of all the hard work.”

For the players, the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival will create life-long memories and, perhaps, represent a springboard to a professional career. For FIFA, the effort in Baku will offer lessons and inspiration for the event’s anticipated evolution in the years to come. Girls teams will be invited in 2027 and then in 2028, the FIFA U-15 World Cup & Festival will be for both.

“We want to make it better, bigger, if possible, and more enjoyable for more kids and for the new generations of these 15-year-old kids,” Grassi said. “From 2028, then, the challenge is to organise both boys’ and girls’ (tournaments), every year, from 2028. So, we (want to) give the opportunity, really, to many more players, many more young boys and young girls all over the world to play (in) a FIFA tournament.”