From the 7th to the 26th of August 2018, France will be the host of the U20 World Cup and it will take place in the Brittany area. Here is what we already know.
Format
Born in 2002, the U20 World Cup (U19 in 2002) has 16 teams distributed over four groups with the top two teams from each group going through to the quarter-finals. For the 2018 France have automatically qualified as hosts. The allocation per confederation is as follows:
Hosts 1: France
UEFA 4: Germany, Netherlands, Spain, England
AFC: 3
CONCACAF: 3
CONMEBOL: 2
CAF: 2
OFC: 1 New Zealand
Accommodation
The French bid had originally offered an unusual set-up with the University campus Beaulieu in Rennes as the accommodation for the 16 teams. The concept was reprising the same spirit as the Olympic villages. This unusual set-up has not been validated by FIFA, who has decided to keep the usual hotel set-up for the delegations.
Stadiums
Many grounds have been proposed to host the 32 games to be played during the tournament over 20 days. Following stadium visits and taking into account the calendar constraints, three grounds have already been selected.
Stade Guy Piriou at Concarneau, Stade Marville in St-Malo and Stade de la Rabine in Vannes. Among the other candidates St-Brieuc, has not been selected as they did not do the required work improvement. A fourth ground will be selected between Vitré and Léhon.
The FIFA LOC has visited the premises two months in order to see what development needed to be done for the tournament. The idea behind the Brittany bid is the whole departments in the region host games but also have training grounds for the teams.
For the remaining grounds waiting to be selected, they are both expected to improve the lighting and the stands in order to fulfil the applicable standard. Those points must be validated by the city halls. The final city should be known in the near future.
The original post in French can be found here
Travel mileage to grounds
If fans/parents wants to be based around Rennes (capital of Brittany) during the tournament, here is the distance from the different grounds:
Rennes – Concarneau 202 km / 125 miles
Rennes – Vannes 116 km / 72 miles
Rennes – St Malo 70 km / 43 miles
Rennes – Vitre 38 km / 24 miles
Rennes – Lehon 54 km / 34 miles
TGV train from Paris to Rennes takes around 1h30
If they want to be based around Nantes (the historical capital of Brittany and a well know tourist area)
Nantes – Concarneau 216 km / 134 miles
Nantes – Vannes 114 km / 71 miles
Nantes – St Malo 179 km / 108 miles
Nantes – Vitre 139 km / 87 miles
Nantes – Lehon 163 km / 101 miles
TGV train from Paris to Nantes takes around 2h00
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