FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. — The U.S. Soccer Federation will not send its under-17 boys’ national team to Qatar for the FIFA U-17 World Cup because of safety concerns tied to the war with Iran, Yahoo Sports has learned.
“Sending 16- and 17-year-olds [to the tournament] given that situation was not tenable,” a person close to the decision said Wednesday. “The well-being of the players and staff is always going to be at the centerpiece of any decision.”
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The USSF notified FIFA as well as its players and staff Wednesday.
Those governing bodies did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
The U-17 World Cup is scheduled to run from Nov. 19 to Dec. 13. The U.S. team was scheduled to participate for the sixth consecutive time.
As a precaution, the USSF had previously switched the team’s pre-tournament camp from Qatar to the national training center near Atlanta. Workouts were set to start Thursday.
The USSF came to its decision Wednesday morning, two sources said.
The U.S. government has a Level 3 travel advisory for Qatar, which sits across the Persian Gulf from Iran. The U.S. and Iran have been at war since February, and Qatar has been attacked by Iran several times since the conflict began early this year.
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The U.S. moved diplomats and their family members out of the Middle East after an Oct. 23 intelligence report said “Iran has substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel [and] reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries.”
One person familiar with USSF operations described the call to the under-17 players and their families as “pretty heartbreaking.”
The federation had communicated with the players and families for 10 days about “a pretty dynamic situation,” a source said.
The federation’s decision came after consultation with its internal security team and the State Department, among others.
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With numerous national teams traveling around the world annually for games and tournaments, the USSF has a close working relationship with government agencies and embassies. In this case, it also used its experiences preparing for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to assess the situation there this fall.
USSF conversations with FIFA were “understanding and respectful,” said a person close to the situation.
