ENGLAND’S SANCHO TO PLAY ONLY IN GROUP STAGES
KOLKATA: England wonderkid Jadon Sancho will join the squad here but will be available only for the group stages of the Under-17 World Cup. “Sancho will be joining the squad in Kolkata,” a team official said. He is expected to join the side before their group opener against Chile on October 8. The star forward was named in England’s 21-member squad but did not travel with the team as his club Borussia Dortmund did not grant permission. But after English FA’s intervention, the Bundesliga giants have now allowed the 17-year-old to feature for Steve Cooper’s side only for the group stages. The FIFA Under-17 World Cup will be missing Brazil’s young star Vinicius Junior who was not allowed by his club Flamengo to play in the tournament and Sancho’s limited participation is further a bad news for the marque event. England checked into the city from Mumbai ahead of their opening match on Oct 8. The Steve Coopercoached side were based in Mumbai for pre-conditioning after landing in India on Sept 28 and warmed up to the Oct 6-28 tournament with a 3-2 defeat of New Zealand on Oct 1.
Iran arrive in Goa
MARGAO: A 21-member Iran national team arrived here on Tuesday to play in the U-17 World Cup. Iran arrived in Goa at 2.30pm by Qatar Airways. Iran, who are placed along with Germany, Guinea and Costa Rica in Group ‘C’, will play their first match against Guinea on Oct 7. After failing to qualify in the first eight tournaments, Iran competed at their first FIFA U-17 World Cup at Trinidad and Tobago 2001, were they suffered three defeats and finished bottom of their group. Eight years later, the Asian side participated in Nigeria 2009, where they advanced from their pool, but lost in the round of 16 to Uruguay. At UAE 2013, Iran again reached the knockout stages, but again came unstuck, losing 1-4 to Nigeria, the eventual winners of the competition.
Iran topped Group A at the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship, due to a better goal difference than second-placed UAE. They then made certain of their place at the U-17 World Cup by comfortably disposing of Vietnam (5-0) in the quarter-finals, before beating Korea DPR in the semi-finals via a penalty shoot-out.