• Final Draw to Be Held April 22 at Moscow City Hall;
• U.S. Joins, Germany, China and Host Russia as Top Seeds

CHICAGO (April 21, 2006) – The Final Draw for the 2006 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Championship will be held Saturday, April 22, at Moscow City Hall. The draw will commence at 7 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET), at which time the USA will find out its three group opponents for the third FIFA youth world championship for women, the first held at the U-20 level, which will be played from Aug. 17-Sept. 3 in Russia.

The USA, winners of the FIFA U-19 World Championship in 2002 in Canada, bronze medallists in 2004 in Thailand and current CONCACAF U-20 champions, earned one of the four coveted seeds. The USA joins reigning champions Germany, current Asian champions and 2004 runners-up China, and host Russia, also the current European champions, as the four seeds.

For the first time, the tournament will be staged with 16 teams. The four seeds will be joined by North Korea and Australia from the Asia Confederation; France, Finland and Switzerland from Europe; Mexico and Canada from CONCACAF; Brazil and Argentina from South America; New Zealand from Oceania and two African teams to be determined at the conclusion of qualifying next month.

Teams from the same confederation cannot be drawn together, with the exception of Europe, which will have five representatives competing for the world title. Russia has already been placed in the top spot in Group A (A1) and will play their first game on the tournament's opening day at the impressive Petrovsky Stadium in St. Petersburg.

The 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship will take place at four stadiums in Moscow (Dinamo, Lokomotiv, Shelkovo and Torpedo) and at one in St. Petersburg (Petrovsky).

Russia will be looking to capitalize on the momentum of previous FIFA U-19 World Championships, in Canada and Thailand, which were extremely successful in terms of organization, fan support and quality of play.

2006 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Championship
Aug. 17-Sept. 3, Russia
Qualified Teams
Host: Russia
Europe: Germany, France, Finland, Switzerland
Asia: China, North Korea, Australia
CONCACAF: USA, Canada, Mexico
South America: Brazil, Argentina
Africa: Africa 1, Africa 2 (Qualifying to be completed in May)
Oceania: New Zealand 

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