The Women’s Under-17 World Cup in India, which was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic, was on Tuesday cancelled by the world governing body FIFA and the country was handed the hosting rights of the 2022 edition.

The decision was taken by the Bureau of the FIFA Council which took stock of the current global COVID-19 pandemic and its continuing impact on football.

“… with the inability to further postpone these tournaments, the FIFA-Confederations COVID-19 Working Group subsequently recommended that the 2020 editions of the two women’s youth tournaments be cancelled and that the hosting rights for the 2022 editions be offered to the countries that were due to host the 2020 editions,” the FIFA said in a statement.

“… following further consultation between FIFA and the respective host member associations regarding the 2022 editions of the tournaments, the Bureau of the Council has approved Costa Rica as host of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup 2022 and India as host of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 respectively.”

The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in November this year but later was postponed to February-March next year due to the raging health crisis.