The draw for the first-ever World U16 Championships was conducted in Strasbourg today.
The Championships will be held in Volos and Larissa, Greece, in a month(August 21 – 27), both for boys and girls.
Boys
Twenty-five teams will take part in the men’s tournament.
They are split into eight groups (seven groups with three and one with four teams).
Group A: Montenegro, Australia, Latvia
Group B: Croatia, Slovenia, Azerbaijan.
Group C: Spain, Brazil, Poland.
Group D: Greece, Japan, Georgia, Switzerland
Group E: Italy, Egypt, Ukraine.
Group F: USA, Kazakhstan, Malta.
Group G: Hungary, South Africa, Turkey
Group H: Serbia, Germany, Portugal.
After the group stage, the 1st-placed and 2nd-placed teams will advance to the eighth finals, while the remaining nine will play in the classification group.
Pairing for the eighth-finals: A1 – D2, B2 – C1, B1 – C2, E1 – H2, F2 – G1, E1 – G2, E2 – H1.
Girls
As for the girls, 13 teams will play in Volos, so the competition formula is different. There will be four groups in the Preliminary stage (three with three and one with four teams)
Group A: Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Turkey.
Group B: Greece, Australia, Switzerland.
Group C: Spain, USA, Japan.
Group D: Netherlands, Israel, South Africa.
The competition field is 25 X 20 m, and the game duration is 4 periods of 6 minutes.
