FIFA confirmed the official squads for all 48 teams at the 2026 Under-17 World Cup on 11 November, eight days before the tournament opens in Qatar. On the same day, the local organising committee said nine visiting teams had already reached Doha. Saudi Arabia were among them, alongside Cameroon, China PR, Costa Rica, Honduras, New Caledonia, New Zealand, South Korea and Vietnam. More than 1,000 players are due to take part. Qatar begin against Panama on 19 November at Aspire Zone, while Saudi Arabia open against Uruguay on the same day.

The announcement fixes the starting point for a competition spread across 104 matches from 19 November to 13 December. The host federation had named Qatar’s 21 players on 9 November. FIFA’s publication puts their selection alongside the lists from the other 47 countries and gives observers a common reference ahead of the opening matches. It is still the starting lineups, tactical roles and minutes played that will show how coaches intend to use those squads. Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both on the opening programme, provide two different examples of what the same tournament can ask of teams from the Gulf.

Qatar’s first test is Panama

Álvaro Mejía’s hosts were drawn with Panama, Egypt and Greece in Group A. Qatar qualified as hosts and are entering their ninth appearance, according to FIFA’s team profile. Their best finish was fourth in 1991. That result belongs to a different generation and a smaller tournament, but it establishes that Qatar’s history in the competition extends well beyond the current hosting agreement. For the current team the practical challenge begins on Pitch 2 at Aspire Zone. The published schedule puts the Panama match at 18:30 local time on 19 November.

Panama earned their place by winning their Concacaf qualifying group. FIFA lists four previous appearances and a best finish of the round of 16 in 2011. Felipe Baloy coaches the side. FIFA’s preview identifies attacking midfielder Estevis López as a player to watch and draws attention to his left foot and willingness to engage defenders. Those details provide something more specific to follow than the fact that Qatar are at home. When Panama regain the ball, the position in which López receives it can help determine whether the next action is a pass out of pressure, a run at the defence or a shot. This is a question for the match, with the confirmed roster as the reference and the starting team still to be announced.

FIFA highlights Al Gharafa’s Dhiaeddine Larbi for the hosts. He scored against Indonesia at the AFC Under-17 Asian Cup, and FIFA’s profile singles out his ability to carry the ball past an opponent. His relevance to this matchup depends on where he can get possession. A reception close to the touchline leaves him a defender to beat and a narrower choice of passing angles. A reception closer to the penalty area can draw cover and create an opening for a teammate. The movement of the players around him, especially the availability of a forward pass after he has drawn pressure, will help explain whether individual work with the ball becomes a sustained threat.

Egypt and Greece meet later on the same opening evening, at 19:00 on Pitch 7. Egypt came through as the third-placed side at the African Under-17 championship. Hussein Abdel-Latif’s team bring the experience of that qualifying run and captain Ahmed Safwat, a Zamalek midfielder identified by FIFA for his passing. The country reached the quarter-finals in 1997, its best result. Greece, under Vasilis Papadakis, are making their debut after qualifying as one of the best second-placed teams in UEFA’s process. FIFA singles out Giorgos Siozios, an Olympiacos player who can operate at right-back or farther forward. It credits his stoppage-time winner against Sweden as an important moment in qualification.

The two matches take place on different pitches with only 30 minutes between kick-offs. A spectator who goes to see the host opener will follow the other Group A game in parallel rather than watch both in full. The timing also matters for interpreting the table. With two games starting so close together, the state of one fixture can change the apparent value of the result in the other. The Qatar–Egypt fixture on 22 November will then bring two Arab teams together inside the same group. Egypt’s presence makes this a regional storyline as well as a host-team one, and their opener against Greece will supply the first match evidence about how they have adapted their qualifying approach for the finals.

Saudi Arabia open a different route in Group D

Saudi Arabia’s first match, against Uruguay, is scheduled for 17:00 local time on 19 November on Pitch 5. The Saudi Arabian Football Federation lists France next on 22 November and Haiti on 25 November. The opening opponent qualified by finishing sixth at the South American Under-17 championship. Uruguay’s best World Cup result at this level was second in 2011. The Saudi team reached this edition as Asian quarter-finalists, and its record includes the title in 1989. These histories frame the fixture, while the players in this year’s squads will have to establish their own standing over three group games.

FIFA’s preview names Abdullah Al Dawsari among the Saudi players to watch. The Al Ahli midfielder made four appearances at the Asian Under-17 tournament and scored in the 4–0 victory over Myanmar. For Uruguay, the governing body highlights Thiago Brizuela of Liverpool Montevideo. He scored both goals in the qualifying victory against Colombia and also scored against Venezuela. Their previous contributions suggest separate questions for the opening game. Saudi Arabia will need to manage the space in which Uruguay can supply a forward with a record of converting chances in qualifying. For Uruguay, the challenge includes controlling the spaces from which the Saudi midfield can support an attack after the first line of pressure has been beaten.

France reached the semi-finals of the European Under-17 championship in qualifying for Qatar and have the 2001 world title on their record. Haiti won their Concacaf qualifying group and are returning after taking part in the first expanded edition in 2025. FIFA lists midfielder Miguel Joseph as a player to follow after he captained Haiti last year. For Saudi Arabia, the fixture order separates three opponents with different qualifying experiences. A coach may want continuity from the first game to the second while adjusting the positions where the team tries to win the ball. Three matches across seven calendar days also make the ability to make changes within a game important. What happens against Uruguay will inform those choices, and the published squad is the reference for which options are available.

How the 48-team format changes the stakes

Qatar’s federation sets out the format as 12 groups of four, with the top two in each group and the eight best third-placed teams going through to the round of 32. The group stage therefore contains 72 fixtures. The other 32 include the knockout matches and the third-place game. This format keeps more teams in contention after the first two fixtures and allows a third-place side to advance even if it cannot catch the two teams above it. To assess that possibility, its results have to be considered alongside the third-placed teams in other groups. In practical terms, what happens in a tight match can affect more than the order of the four teams on the same pitch schedule.

Morocco supplied a concrete example in 2025. The team lost to Japan and Portugal in its first two games, then beat New Caledonia 16–0 in its third. The result did not put Morocco into one of the automatic places. FIFA reported that results in the other groups subsequently confirmed their progress as one of the best third-placed sides. That episode shows why the final group game can remain consequential after two losses and why one team’s qualification can be confirmed only after matches elsewhere have finished.

Qatar also staged the first edition with 48 teams in 2025. Portugal beat Austria 1–0 in that final to win their first title at this level. The match was played at Khalifa International Stadium. FIFA’s 11 November squad announcement places this year’s final at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on 13 December. It says that the other matches will be held across eight pitches at Aspire Zone. That venue distinction matters to spectators consulting older event material, and to readers trying to understand where a team would play if it progressed. The large cluster of opening games belongs to the Aspire complex. The championship match has a separate destination.

The previous edition also supplies a benchmark for how to read the new group stage. The Qatar Olympic Committee counted 326 goals in 104 matches in 2025. FIFA’s technical review put the share of attempts converted at 10.9 percent, close to 11.4 percent in the 2023 edition. More matches created more opportunities to score across the tournament, while the conversion rate remained broadly similar. That distinction will matter again once scorelines begin to come in. A team’s chance creation and its finishing deserve separate attention, especially where qualification can turn on comparison with other groups.

FIFA’s technical review also noted that the two 2025 finalists preferred contrasting approaches to possession and direct play. The point for the coming competition is practical. A team can spend less time on the ball and still reach dangerous positions if it is able to move forward quickly when it regains possession. A team that builds longer attacks will be judged by where it takes the ball and the chances it creates. Those distinctions are more informative than drawing conclusions about 48 youth teams from a handful of opening results.

Qatar is hosting the second of five consecutive editions through 2029. For the current competition, the local committee has said that Aspire can handle up to eight matches in a day in the group stage and round of 32. The opening schedule illustrates what that means in practice. Qatar and Saudi Arabia play on separate pitches, with Saudi Arabia starting 90 minutes earlier. Egypt and Greece follow later on a third pitch. For a scouting staff covering several national teams or a supporter planning a visit, the match, pitch and local kick-off time matter as much as the name of the complex. The centralised layout makes it possible to move between fixtures, while the overlaps mean choices about which match to watch in full are unavoidable.

The next public activity comes before the first match. The organising committee scheduled a trophy stop for Thursday, 12 November, from 18:00 to 22:00 in Wadi Msheireb Square, according to the Qatar News Agency. The next sporting milestone is 19 November, when the squads move from the official lists into actual competition. The clearest early points of comparison for the Gulf are Qatar’s opening match against Panama, Saudi Arabia’s encounter with Uruguay, and the first look at Egypt against Greece. The tournament now has its registered field and an opening schedule. How each coach uses it will start to become clear on the pitches at Aspire.

Sources · FIFA’s official squad announcement · Qatar News Agency on arrivals and the trophy stop · Gulf Times on the first arrivals · Qatar Football Association squad list · Qatar Football Association on the draw and format · Football Qatar’s local-time schedule · FIFA Group A profiles · FIFA Group D profiles · Saudi federation fixture list · Qatar Olympic Committee’s 2025 archive · FIFA’s 2025 technical review · FIFA on Morocco’s 2025 qualification

Archive photograph from the 2022 senior World Cup at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium. Hossein Zohrevand / Tasnim News Agency via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Original photograph displayed without edits.

Talal Osman

Source: inside.fifa.com