About the tournament

16 Youth National Football teams with players born on 1 January 1996 and later shall participate in the XXVI International youth football tournament in memory of the first vice-president of FIFA Valentin Granatkin.

Tournament format

The tournament is played in two stages.

At the preliminary stage the 16 participating teams are divided into 4 groups of four teams each where they shall play one round against each of the competitors.

The ranking of the teams in the preliminary stage shall be made up basing on the overall points acquired by each team (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 point for a defeat).

In case of equality of points of two or more teams the following criteria shall be taken into account:
- the higher number of victories in all the matches;
- results of the matches between each other (quantity of points, goals differences, number of scored goals);
- superior goal difference in all the matches;
- higher number of goals scored in all the matches;
- the smallest quantity of disciplinary violations (yellow card is 1 point, dismissal is 3 points);
- in the case of all these points' equality, a draw of lots shall be held.

The second stage of the tournament is play–off matches, they are played to determine the ranking.

- the teams which take the 1st positions in the groups shall constitute the semi-final pairs and play for the 1st-4th positions;
- the runner-ups shall play for the 5th-8th positions;
- the teams which take the 3rd positions in the groups shall play for the 9th-12th positions;
- the teams which take the 4th positions in the groups shall play for the 13th-16th positions.

If the play-off matches finish up in a draw after the playing time the winners shall be determined by penalty kicks right after the match in accordance with Laws of the game.