Newly launched U15 "Football Season" accelerates full coverage of the "World Cup IP"

Written by Han Bing On December 17, the FIFA Council meeting in Doha declared that from 2026, global U15 boys' and girls' football competitions will be fully launched. This event is called the FIFA U15 Football Season, with the U15 boys' competition starting in 2026 and the U16 girls' competition in 2027, adopting formats and schedules similar to the U17 and U20 World Cups. By 2028, all 211 FIFA member associations will be invited to participate, gradually creating the conditions to launch U15 boys' and girls' World Cups.

FIFA also confirmed that the inaugural Women's Club World Cup will take place from January 5 to 30, 2028. Nineteen women's teams from six continents will compete, with 13 teams directly entering the group stage, including five from Europe, and two each from Asia, Africa, CONCACAF, and South America. Each continent will have one team (totaling six) competing in playoffs for the remaining three group stage spots. However, the host for the first tournament has not yet been decided.

Additionally, FIFA will expand the International FIFA "Series Friendly Matches" initiated in 2024. Starting in 2024, every two years during the March international match window, FIFA will fund cross-continental friendly tournaments. These events consist of four-team friendlies hosted by a single football association to promote intercontinental exchange. The first edition in 2024 was held six times across five countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe, with teams from all six continents participating. By March 2026, the series will expand to nine host countries. In the future, this event will become FIFA's main IP for integrating the global national team friendly match market.

Since Gianni Infantino became FIFA President in 2016, expanding the "World Cup IP" has been a top priority. This expansion extends vertically to younger age group World Cups for both boys and girls and horizontally covers men's and women's club competitions, association team friendlies, beach soccer, futsal, and esports, aiming for full "World Cup IP" coverage across all football domains worldwide. The expansion includes enlarging the U17, U20, and men's and women's World Cups, as well as creating entirely new competitions.

FIFA has long intended to establish U15 boys' and girls' World Cups and has piloted this globally through the FIFA "Forward" program. In 2019, Croatia launched the U15 "Marković International Invitational," fully supported by FIFA, now held seven times with FIFA investing over $1 million. At the FIFA Congress in Bangkok in May 2024, Infantino formally proposed hosting global U15 boys' and girls' World Cups in the future.

In 2004, CONMEBOL established the U15 boys' championship, which has been held 11 times; this year also saw the creation of a U15 girls' championship. In 2023, CAF launched U15 boys' and girls' championships. In 2024 and 2025, CONCACAF successively founded U15 girls' and boys' championships. The AFC currently has no U15 tournaments, but its sub-confederations, the Southeast Asian Football Federation (U16 boys' and girls') and the Central Asian Football Association (U15 boys' and girls'), hold official competitions. In 2018, the EAFF started the U15 boys' East Asian Cup, now in its third edition this year.

The upcoming FIFA U15 boys' and girls' "Football Season" likely will feature 7- to 9-a-side matches due to most associations' limited financial resources. These two newly created U15 events provide the largest international competition platform for U15 national youth teams lacking international tournament experience. Starting next year, the Chinese Football Association should actively apply to participate, including proactively bidding to host FIFA U15 boys' and girls' "Football Season" tournaments.

In December 2022, FIFA announced plans to create a Women's Club World Cup in 2026 but postponed it to 2028, with the 2026 women's champion clubs from six continents competing in a "dress rehearsal" tournament. The 2028 Women's Club World Cup finals will feature 16 teams, and reports indicate that the six continental teams participating in the 2026 and 2027 women's champion cups will be invited, giving Wuhan women's team a potential chance to compete. For the Chinese women's team, which lacks international competition experience, the Club World Cup undoubtedly represents the highest-level tournament platform.

In March next year, the FIFA men's and women's "Series Friendly Matches" will expand to nine countries, including Australia, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Rwanda, Mauritius, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico. Since the Chinese men's team has no official matches in 2026, the FIFA "Series Friendly Matches" can serve as a key platform for tactical refinement and player evaluation in preparation for the 2027 Asian Cup. The Chinese Football Association is already in talks to host friendlies domestically next March and may also bid to host future FIFA "Series Friendly Matches," facilitating warm-up games with opponents from other continents through FIFA coordination.