The New Zealand Men’s U-16 team has been confirmed to take part in the new pilot FIFA Youth Series tournament set to be played at FIFA’s Home of Football in Zurich, Switzerland, this May.

The tournament features six teams, from all six of the FIFA confederations, split into two groups: 

Group A – Guatemala, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Switzerland

Group B – Malaysia, Paraguay, and Tunisia

Each team will play the other two countries in their group before facing off against the side in their equivalent position in the other pool (3rd vs 3rd, 2nd vs 2nd, and a final of 1st vs 1st to confirm the overall winner).

Aotearoa New Zealand will play Switzerland on 19 May, and Guatemala on 20 May, with both games kicking off at 2:30am NZT (18 and 19 May at 4:30pm local time).

The 5th place playoff and 3rd place playoff will be played on 22 May at 2:30am NZT and 9pm NZT respectively, with the Final on 23 May at 2:30am NZT. 

The FIFA Youth Series is designed to provide U-16 players the chance to train, compete, and showcase their skills on the international stage ahead of participating in yearly U-17 FIFA tournaments.

The tournament will also act as a warm-up ahead of the OFC Men’s U-16 Championship 2025, the qualifying tournament for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2026, which kicks off in August in Solomon Islands. 

Men’s U-16 and U-17 head coach Martin Bullock sees the FIFA Youth Series as a perfect opportunity to expose young kiwi talent to international competition:

“When a player is developing, you want to expose them to as many different types of teams and challenges as possible, so the prospect of facing sides from around the world in a tournament of this nature is brilliant.

“We have the chance to face other OFC nations on a regular basis but, positioned where we are in the world, it is challenging to face non-OFC sides as often, so we want to take up every opportunity we get to challenge ourselves at this level to develop as a group before the next FIFA U-17 World Cup.”

The tournament will be broadcast live and free on FIFA+.

Article added: Friday 02 May 2025