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With only 18 days to go before the commencement of this year’s FIFA U-17 World Cup, 5 of the 24 participating teams have already named their squad for the tournament. This will be India’s first participation at a major FIFA tournament as they will be hosting the competition.
India may be the hosts but hopes aren’t too high for them as they have been grouped with two-time champions Ghana. The United States and Colombia make up the other two teams and both of them have been the tournament’s semi-finalists.
However, if India are eliminated in the first round, they won’t be the first team to have endured this fate as in the 32-year history of this competition, there have been a total of eight hosts who have crashed out of the tournament in the first round. Let’s take a look at the 5 worst performances by any host in the history of the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
#5 Italy- 1991
Italy hosted the first edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup and were led by then 16-year-old star in the making Alessandro Del Piero and were pooled alongside Argentina, United States, and China.
The Azzurri lost the opening match of the tournament to the United States thanks to an early goal from Mike Dunne. In their second game, the hosts were up against China. The Chinese took the lead but goals from Del Piero and Daniele Giraldi gave the Italians the lead. However, only six minutes after Giraldi’s goal, China equalised and the match ended 2-2 which meant that Italy would have to beat Argentina in their final match to qualify for the knockout stages.
Italy could only manage a draw against Argentina which meant the latter qualified for the quarter-finals at Italy’s expense who ended third in the group with just two points.
#4 Peru- 2005
Peru qualified for their maiden U-17 World Cup in 2005 as the hosts of the tournament. It was also their maiden FIFA tournament since the 1982 World Cup. The Peruvians were in a group with two-time winners Ghana, China, and Costa Rica.
Peru began their tournament opener against Ghana well by taking an early lead courtesy a Daniel Chavez spot kick. However, an own goal from keeper Miguel Cardenas denied them a glorious win. This was to be their only point of the championship as they went on to lose against China and Costa Rica 1-0 and 2-0 respectively.
The Jotitas eventually ended their group in last place which remains the worst performance by a South American host at the U-17 World Cup.
#3 Trinidad and Tobago- 2001
Trinidad and Tobago were in their maiden FIFA U-17 World Cup as the hosts of the 2001 edition and were in a pretty tough group comprising of Brazil, Australia and Croatia.
The Islanders lost their tournament opener against Croatia 2-1 thanks to two spot kicks from Niko Kranjcar. This was followed by a 1-0 defeat to Australia which eliminated them from the tournament. In their final group game, the Soca Warriors were thrashed by Brazil 6-1 and ended their group and the tournament rock bottom with a goal difference of -7.
Trinidad and Tobago’s 6-1 defeat to Brazil was a record for the worst match by any host of the U-17 World Cup until it was broken in the very next edition by Finland who were thrashed 9-1 by Colombia.
#2 Canada- 1987
Canada hosted the second edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup when it was known as the FIFA U-16 World Championship. They were in a group alongside Italy, Qatar, and Egypt. The Canadians were trounced 3-0 by Italy in their first match where one of the goal scorers for the Italians was future senior team player Gianluca Pessotto.
Another the opening 3-0 defeat, they then lost to Egypt, leaving them to play for pride in their final match against Qatar. Canada lost 2-1 but they did manage to score a goal thanks to Guido Titotto.
Like Trinidad and Tobago, Canada ended their group with zero points and a goal difference of -7 but the reason why their performance is considered inferior to that of the Caribbean side is because they scored only 1 goal in their respective tournament whereas Trinidad and Tobago scored two.
#1 United Arab Emirates- 2013
And the top spot in this list is taken by United Arab Emirates who hosted the U-17 World Cup in 2013. The Arab nation were in a group that comprised of three-time champions Brazil, Honduras, and debutants Slovakia.
A last minute winner by Brayan Velasquez denied UAE a point in their opening game against Honduras which ended 2-1. The Gulf nation was thrashed by Brazil 6-1 in their second game which more or less confirmed their elimination. To stand a chance of qualifying for the round of 16 as one of the best four third-place teams, UAE needed to win their final group game against Slovakia by an astronomical margin and needed Brazil to beat Honduras.
Brazil did beat Honduras but the hosts were beaten 2-0 by Slovakia thanks to a brace from Tomas Vestenicky and were eliminated. With a goal difference of -8, UAE hold the record of the worst performance by any host nation at the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
