[1] This edition will be the opening of the annual cycle adopted by FIFA for the U-17 World Cup and the first to be played in the 48-team format instead of the previous biennial 24-team tournaments.
[6][7] Over the following months these proposals continued to be evaluated and analysed until they were approved by the FIFA Council in October 2023,[8][9] and then confirmed on 14 March 2024.
[3] The proposed new competition format to be confirmed is as follows:[7] On 15 November 2023, FIFA launched a global call for expressions of interest from member associations to host the next five editions of the U17 World Cup (2025–2029) as a single consolidated package.
[12][13] Although FIFA did not disclose whether there were other interested member associations, a joint bid by Indonesia and Singapore and another by Denmark were known to have been submitted.
The new expanded slot allocation per confederation was approved by the FIFA Council meeting held on 15 May 2024:[17] All times are local, AST – (UTC+3).