UEFA Under-16 Development Tournament is the

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tournament organised by the

Union of European Football Associations Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

(UEFA) in order to enable young men and women footballers to experience international football.

History

The tournament was established in 2012, and since then 217 such tournaments were organised, with four national teams competing at each tournament. The tournament is especially focused on the development of young players, with a special set of rules applied for that purpose. For example, there is a minimum playing time for a player in case of a draw and a penalty shootout. The tournament helps young referees to gain experience in international football as well. The tournament also enables the participation of non-UEFA members, with 23 non-UEFA national boys' and girls' national teams competing at the tournament so far. A similar tournament was organised for the under-15 national football teams in 2019, and since then 21 such tournaments were played. The same under-15 tournament was organised for girls in 2022, with 8 tournaments played since then. In 2020,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

was scheduled to host the UEFA Development Tournament at the Subcarpathian Football Center,

Stalowa Wola Stalowa Wola () is the largest city and capital of Stalowa Wola County with a population of 58,545 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2021. It is located in southeastern Poland in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. The city lies in historic Lesser Polan ...

and Tarnobrzeg Stadium,

Tarnobrzeg Tarnobrzeg is a city in south-eastern Poland (historic Lesser Poland), on the east bank of the river Vistula, with 49,419 inhabitants, as of 31 December 2009. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Polish: ''Województwo podkarpackie'') since ...

. The tournament was to feature the Poland U-16, Venezuela U-16, Iceland U-16 and Iran U-16. However, the event, planned for March and April, was canceled on 18 March 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

and the associated epidemiological threat in Poland.

Results

Footnotes

References

* {{Refend Recurring sporting events established in 2012 2012 establishments in Europe UEFA competitions for national teams Under-16 association football competitions European youth sports competitions Annual sporting events