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The national U-15 football team will depart for Azerbaijan tomorrow, Wednesday, to participate in the 2026 U-15 World Cup and Festival.
The team concluded its friendly matches against its Palestinian counterpart as part of its domestic training camp, in preparation for the tournament, which will be held from the 22nd to the 31st of this month using an 8x8 format.
The team won the first match 2-1, while the two teams drew 2-2 in the second match, before the team renewed its victory in the third match 2-0, with the fourth match ending in a goalless draw.
The matches are part of the team's preparatory program, led by coach Mohammad Abdulraouf, with the aim of preparing the players and giving them the opportunity to play closely-timed matches during the day, simulating the competition format of the global tournament.
The team's roster includes 14 players: Mohammad Al-Sayed, Kinan Hamoudeh, Abdulrahman Khairallah, Amir Al-Zoubi, Ayham Al-Areedi, Hashem Abdelhalim, Khaled Al-Khalidi, Laith Sariyah, Majd Abu Joudeh, Walid Al-Zoubi, Wissam Khalawi, Ziad Dhiyabat, Jamal Al-Khuraisha, and Zain Al-Din Abu Al-Shaer.
The team will begin its matches by facing Cyprus at 1:30 PM on the 24th (Jordan time), then meet Nigeria at 11:45 AM and South Sudan at 6:30 PM on the 25th, and will conclude its first-round matches by facing Pakistan at 10:30 AM and The Gambia at 5:15 PM on the 26th.
The tournament is held in two stages, beginning with a qualification stage during which the teams play matches in a league format, before moving to the championship stage, as the results and ranking of the first stage determine the path of each team, and teams with similar rankings meet in the following stage.
The competitions continue in a cross-knockout format, where winning teams meet each other and losing teams meet each other, without any team being eliminated from the competition, leading to placement matches at each level. In the event that any match ends in a draw, penalty shootouts are taken directly without extra time.
FIFA had announced the launch of the first edition of the U-15 World Cup, inviting all 211 member national associations to participate in the tournament, which aims to bring together more than 4,000 children in a global football festival.
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