The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the score of 2–1, thus managing a back-to-back world title, its fifth in the past seven editions, and sixth overall. Argentine player Sergio Agüero was given the FIFA U-20 Golden Shoe (top scorer, with six goals) and the FIFA U-20 Golden Ball (best player of the tournament), while Japan earned the FIFA Fair Play Award.
The tournament featured 24 teams coming from six continental confederations; Canada qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining teams qualified based on their rankings at the respective continental U-20 (U-19 in Europe's case) tournaments. UEFA (Europe) qualified six teams; AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America) four teams each; and OFC (Oceania) one team.
The tournament took place in a variety of venues across the country – Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria and Burnaby (Vancouver) – with the showcase stadium being Toronto's new National Soccer Stadium[1] where the final match was held. 19 years later Canada will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
On 28 June 2007, two days before the inaugural match, it was reported that 950,000 tickets had been sold,[2] making it the largest single-sport event ever taking place in the country,[3] and on 3 July, the tournament organizers sold the millionth ticket.[4] On 19 July, the semi-final match between Chile and Argentina marked this edition as the most attended in the tournament's history, with an accumulated attendance of 1,156,187 spectators, surpassing Mexico 1983's 1,155,160 spectators.[5] Attendance totalled 1,195,299 after the final match.
Three countries launched bids to host the competition: Canada, Japan and South Korea.[6] On August 6, 2004 the FIFA Emergency Committee unanimously awarded the rights to host the event to Canada over South Korea (Japan did not submit an official bid).[7]
Twenty-three teams qualified for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. As the host team, Canada received an automatic bid, bringing the total number of teams to twenty-four for the tournament. The final draw for the group stages took place on 3 March 2007 in Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex, Toronto.
For a list of the squads see 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup squads
The 24 participating teams were distributed between six groups of four teams each, according to a draw held on 3 March 2007. The groups are contested on a league system, where each team plays one time against the other teams in the same group, for a total of six matches per group. Each group winner and runner-up teams, as well as the best four third-placed teams, qualify for the first round of the knockout stage (round of 16).
With six goals, Sergio Agüero was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 135 goals were scored by 84 different players, with one of them credited as own goals.
Claudio Yacob
Sebastian Prödl
Amaral
Carlos Carmona Hans Martínez Alexis Sánchez Mathías Vidangossy
Franchel Ibara Gracia Ikouma Ermejea Ngakosso
Pablo Herrera Jonathan McDonald
Ondřej Kúdela Jakub Mareš Tomáš Mičola Marek Střeštík
Pierre Gomez Abdoulie Mansally
Jun Aoyama Tomoaki Makino Atomu Tanaka Tsukasa Umesaki
Lo'ay Omran
Christian Bermúdez Omar Esparza Javier Hernández Héctor Moreno Osmar Mares
Jack Pelter
Chukwuma Akabueze Elderson Echiéjilé Brown Ideye
Kim Kum-il Jon Kwang-ik
Nelson Barahona
Grzegorz Krychowiak
Vitorino Antunes Feliciano Condesso
Ross Campbell Mark Reynolds
Lee Sang-ho Shim Young-sung
Marquitos Alberto Bueno Diego Capel Javi García Gerard Piqué Mario Suárez
Michael Bradley
Clifford Mulenga William Njobvu Fwayo Tembo
Mathías Cardaccio (against the United States)Source:[8]
The quarter-final match between Chile and Nigeria took place on FIFA's "Say No To Racism Day." During extra time, Chile's Jaime Grondona scored at the 96th minute, but Nigerians claimed that it was offside. Despite their protest, referee Howard Webb allowed the goal to stand, and the goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa received a yellow card for his protest. Replays showed that a defender was out of place, and it was not offside.[9][10]
After the game, Nigerian coach Ladan Bosso accused Webb of racism in a press conference, stating that "the officiating, I think FIFA has a long way to go to beat racism because that official showed racism." When asked directly if he felt Webb was a racist, Bosso responded by stating that "It's good for FIFA to bring in the fight against racism, but they have to follow it to the letter so that the implementation will be done."[10] The coach was fined CHF 11,000 and banned for four months, as the disciplinary committee found him guilty of "offensive behaviour" under the terms of article 57 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was also sanctioned for allowing the players to wear T-shirts with religious statements under their game jerseys. This was a violation of the regulations of the tournament, which state: "Players and officials are not allowed to display political, religious, commercial or personal messages in any language or form on their playing or team kits..."[9]
On 19 July 2007, there was a clash between Chilean players and police officers following the semi-final match between Chile and Argentina. The Chilean players were angry with referee, Wolfgang Stark, claiming that he had "lost control of the match early on"[11] and complained about receiving seven yellow cards and two red cards,[12] with a total of 53 fouls committed.[13] After the game, Stark and his colleagues were surrounded by Chilean players, and Toronto Police Service members had to intervene to restrain them. Stark was escorted off the pitch and into the dressing room tunnel by the police, due to fears that he would be attacked by the crowd or Chilean players.[14] Afterwards, there was a brawl between several players and delegates of the Chilean team and police outside Toronto's National Soccer Stadium.[15]
According to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, the altercation began when Chilean players got into a scuffle with a rival fan.[16] He added that "members of the Chilean team then decided to direct some of their aggressive behaviour towards my officers... The job of my officers was to respond in a firm, but fair, manner to end that violence. They are trained to do so, and that is what they did."[16] The Chilean players, however, stated that Isaías Peralta walked towards Chilean fans located behind a security fence, but was stopped by about ten policemen. They further stated that a heated discussion took place, and Peralta (who speaks no English) was verbally and physically abused by the policemen.[17]
Peralta was tasered by a police officer and lost consciousness for 20 minutes.[17] Subsequently, other players became involved in a struggle with the police, but eventually returned to their bus and closed the doors. Eyewitnesses reported that players on the bus threw objects at the police through the windows and attempted to grab officers from inside the damaged bus.[18] Three minutes later, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, the president of the Chilean National Association of Professional Football (ANFP), asked the players to exit the bus and board a different one. As the players were leaving the bus, the police then took them back to the stadium.[19]
FIFA spokesman, John Schumacher, stated that "the Chilean players were detained by the police to de-escalate the situation that was taking place in front of the stadium. Ten Chilean team members were detained over three hours and then released without charges."[20] The following day, FIFA president Sepp Blatter expressed at a press conference in Toronto that the incident was "regrettable" and that he "apologised in the name of FIFA."[21] The ANFP hired a Toronto-based law firm to pursue legal action against the Toronto police.[19]
The incident was on the front page of every major Chilean newspaper. Following the incident, the Canadian embassy in Santiago received a bomb threat, and angry Chileans protested outside the embassy holding signs that read "Racist Canada."[22] Chilean President Michelle Bachelet described the incident as "particularly serious because, in our view, the Chilean delegation suffered unjustified aggression"[21] and lodged a formal protest with the Canadian government.[23] In response, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper remarked that "international soccer matches are hotly contested and often become very emotional. As you know, there are processes in Canada by which the authorities review these kinds of incidents and I don't intend to comment further."[23]
According to reports in Canadian media, a Chilean team member punched a female police officer in the face before Peralta was tasered.[24][25] An internal review led by Superintendent Jim Ramer determined that officers acted professionally and with "an immense amount of restraint" during the conflict outside BMO Field, in which Chilean players "punched, kicked, spat on, and kicked" police and security staff. The report stated that the violence began when two individuals not involved in the game confronted each other. Security guards attempted to intervene, followed by police, when a Chilean player punched a female police officer in the face. From that point, the report stated that the violence escalated, with Chilean players dismantling armrests and footrests from the bus seats and smashing windows in order to spit and throw objects at police, including D batteries, clothes hangers, and cans of deodorant. Four officers were reportedly injured by projectiles. FIFA agreed to pay for the $35,000 cost of damages to the team's rented bus.[24]
Mayne-Nicholls, who was a witness to the incident, stated that "I didn't see any Chilean player hitting any officer except between all the struggling." Patricio Bascuñán, the president of the Salvador Allende Cultural Society of Toronto, called for an independent review.[24]
Grondona was suspended for nine months at all levels, including domestic and international play, and fined CHF 7,000 (including procedural costs) for assaulting match officials. The Chilean football association was fined CHF 15,000 for "team misconduct."
Japan and South Korea are also bidding against Canada
