The draw for the 13th West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) U-17 Championship took place this afternoon at the WAFF headquarters in Amman. The tournament will be hosted in the Jordanian city of Aqaba and runs from 26 September to 5 October.

The draw placed Lebanon in Group A alongside Yemen, Syria and Palestine.

Group B includes Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Seven teams from the West Asian federations will take part: Jordan, the UAE, Syria, Oman, Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar were unable to participate for various reasons.

The teams are divided into two groups — one of four teams and one of three — with group-stage matches played in a single round-robin format. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals, and the semifinal winners meet in the final to decide the champion.

The tournament comes ahead of the Asian qualifiers scheduled for 8–20 November, giving participating teams an extra opportunity to prepare for the continental competition through direct encounters with regional opponents and by raising their technical and physical readiness. This participation is particularly important for Lebanon, as the Asian qualifiers draw placed them in Group 7 with Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Brunei Darussalam.

The Lebanese national U-17 team aims to challenge strongly for the title in the 13th edition, seeking to make up for last edition’s final loss. They reached the previous final and performed well throughout the tournament before losing to Saudi Arabia on penalties. The team hopes to build on its preparations and maintain a strong showing in this edition to go as far as possible and compete for the championship until the final whistle.