India lose bid to host 2019 U-20 FIFA World Cup

As the country slept in the early hours of Saturday morning, a major decision that could have dictated the future of Indian football for the next two years was being taken at a FIFA Council meeting in Bogotá, Colombia.

The host for the next edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup was set to be decided among the other agendas at the meeting. In the end, though, India lost out to Poland as the European country was awarded the hosting rights.

The meeting, which was dominated by approval of the regulations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, saw the FIFA committee reviewing the bids of India and the only other contestant Poland.

India had submitted their bid after successfully hosting the U-17 FIFA World Cup last year. The tournament had seen record footfall which had encouraged the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to submit a bid.

Both India and Poland had qualified on the most essential criteria, to have stadiums ready. In general, FIFA announces the hosts of any major tournament at least three years before the tournament. However, all the controversies emerging in the last two years and an in-depth relook at the bidding systems resulted in a situation where any host would have less than two years to prepare for the event. In simple words, the stadiums had to be ready now.

Despite having the venues ready, though, speculations were rife that India might not land the tournament. With most of the U-20 stars playing at professional levels, no club would be willing to release them in the middle of the season. That is one of the reasons why most of FIFA's tournaments are slotted around May to July when there is a major gap in the club calendars.

But Indian summers are not at all suitable for football. One cannot imagine a 5 pm kickoff in May, June or July. And that is believed to be a major reason why FIFA came to the conclusion that Poland will be the ideal host for the 22nd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup.