Morocco’s men’s under-15 team earned a narrow 4-3 victory over Venezuela in Baku on 29 October. The fixture formed part of the matches used to determine the teams’ final placements. It was therefore a win during the continuing tournament programme, but it should not be described as a final or as a victory that returned Morocco to contention for the overall title.
The match belonged to the competition’s distinctive chronology: after qualification results had been recorded, every team continued in one of six performance tiers. The winner of Tier A would become the overall champion, while the other participating sides kept playing for their respective placements and to gain further international match experience through the event’s final day.
Four Moroccan goals inside 30 minutes
Morocco scored their four goals in the fifth, 15th, 25th and 30th minutes. Ajana delivered the first two, before Mohamed Amine Zerkaoui added another goal in the 25th minute. Bellamine then scored the fourth in the 30th minute, providing the Moroccan side with the four goals required to finish the classification fixture one goal ahead of Venezuela.
The available reports disagree about Ajana’s given name and also show a minor transliteration difference in Bellamine’s given name. For that reason, Ajana is identified only by his surname as the scorer of the opening two goals, while Bellamine is likewise retained in a form common to the reports. No verified information identifies Venezuela’s scorers or establishes the complete sequence of all seven goals.
A fixture at Baku’s Hovsan complex
The game was staged at the Hovsan complex in Baku, the venue used for most matches during the inaugural competition. Activity there was especially intense as the event approached its conclusion. The Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan reported that 192 matches were played at Hovsan on 29 October, the same date as Morocco’s classification victory over Venezuela.
The schedule was set to remain busy on 30 October, when a further 90 matches and six tier finals were due to take place at Hovsan. Those figures place Morocco’s 4-3 win within an event featuring many games and multiple placement pathways. They do not, however, establish Morocco’s next opponent, its eventual position or any result from the final day.
The inaugural U15 competition’s unusual format
Held in Azerbaijan from 24 to 30 October 2026, the event was the inaugural boys’ FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival. It brought together 189 teams representing member associations and more than 3,000 players and officials. That scale supported a structure unlike a conventional tournament focused entirely on a knockout bracket leading to a single title match.
Games were played in an eight-a-side format on smaller pitches, with two halves of 20 minutes each. The rules also included rolling substitutions and kick-ins. These adaptations enabled teams to play short fixtures within a dense programme, while maintaining a competitive structure based on match results and the subsequent allocation of participants to different performance tiers.
Keeping every team active until the final day
Results from the qualifying part of the event placed the teams into six performance tiers. Every side then continued playing through the final day rather than leaving immediately after a conventional elimination. Within that system, Morocco’s meeting with Venezuela carried classification and evaluation value, but the result alone does not show where either team ultimately finished in the overall tournament structure.
FIFA described the format as an opportunity to give young players international match experience and to provide member associations with benchmarking opportunities. Eligible participants were born in 2011 or 2012. Morocco’s victory can therefore be understood both as a specific sporting result and as one stage within a broader programme intended to expose this age group to international competition.
What can be established from the result
The verified account of the match contains several clear points: Morocco won 4-3, Ajana scored in the fifth and 15th minutes, Zerkaoui found the net in the 25th, and Bellamine scored in the 30th. The Royal Moroccan Football Federation was cited as the source of the scoring information, while Karim Meftal was identified as the coach of the Moroccan team.
The available evidence does not provide the line-ups, substitutions, cards or detailed match statistics. It also does not establish Morocco’s final placement in the competition. Any update about a later opponent or a result recorded on 30 October would consequently require new verified information and should remain separate from the confirmed account of this 4-3 classification-match victory.
