‘Obviously, the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) is very pleased with the successes of our ticket sales campaign. We’ve set the stage to reach the 520,000 spectators we had anticipated for the event next summer,’ stated Kevan Pipe, CSA’s Chief Operating Officer. ‘This would give the FIFA U-20 event the record as the largest single-sport, sporting event ever held in Canada.’

‘Strong group tournament package sales in Edmonton, Ottawa, and Victoria have been complimented by brisk online sales through www.FIFA.com for Toronto, Burnaby and Montréal.’

The announcement was made during a press conference in light of the recent FIFA site inspection visit where FIFA Vice-President and Chairman of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007, Jack A. Warner, led a high level FIFA and CSA delegation on a site tour of the six host venues and stadiums in Victoria, Burnaby, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montréal, and Toronto in preparation of the tournament.

"I am pleased to say that our Canadian hosts have been first class in every way and have done more than simply meet all of FIFA’s expectations - they have surpassed them," said Warner. "Having sold so many tickets before most of the teams are even known is quite an achievement and makes me very confident that next summer’s event will indeed be a huge success."

The FIFA World Youth Championship held in the Netherlands in 2005 achieved an impressive attendance of 503,000 spectators.

FIFA also announced today that Portugal would be placed into the group of teams that will play in Toronto. The proposal, which was put forth by the Canadian Soccer Association due to the large Portuguese community living in Toronto, was approved at the October 17^th meeting of the Organizing Committee for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Zurich.

FIFA (Fédération internationale de Football Association), world soccer’s governing body, and the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) announced earlier today that the Official Draw date for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 will be held Saturday, March 3^rd in Toronto.

The Official Draw is an anticipated event for every country who has earned a berth to this year’s tournament. It will have a major impact on the competition by determining a team’s match dates, home venue and most important, their opponents during group match play. It will set the stage for the tournament and create speculations of early favourites.

With seven teams already qualified for the 2007 event - including host Canada and six European representatives (Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and Spain) - the 17 remaining teams will be decided between October 29^th - when the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualification competition kicks off in India - and February 25^th, 2007, when the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) brings its qualification to a close.