May 16 – The inaugural Asian Football Confederation U-20 Futsal Championship kicked off today in Bangkok, Thailand, with 21 teams playing for the AFC title and qualification for the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.
The tournament is being played across two venues – the Bangkok Arena and the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium – and builds on the record breaking success of the AFC Futsal Club Championship in Bangkok last summer that saw more than 64,000 spectators watch the competition, a 365% rise on the 2015 event. Social media also exploded during that event with the AFC’s Twitter account reaching 912,974 impressions, 300% higher than the 2015 championship. The AFC’s Facebook saw an increase of almost 70% impressions.
The opening day of the U-20 Championship saw early wins for Afghanistan (a whopping 14-1 victory over Brunei Darussalam), Lebanon, Hong Kong, Iraq, and Indonesia. China and the Krygz Republic drew 3-3 while the surprise result of the round was Mongolia’s 5-3 win over the United Arab Emirates. Mongolia face the Krygz Republic next.
At press time the result of the day’s big match between hosts Thailand and Malaysia was still not in.
With this competition the AFC is mirroring the introduction of age-group regional Futsal championships in other confederations.
The 21 sides have been divided into four groups. The top two from each group will go forward to knock out rounds with the final being played on May 26.
Competing teams:
Group A: Thailand, Iraq, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Bahrain, Afghanistan
Group B: Vietnam, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Tajikistan, Indonesia
Group C: Uzbekistan, Qatar, Lebanon, Myanmar, Hong Kong
Group D: Islamic Republic of Iran, Kyrgyz Republic, China PR, Mongolia, United Arab Emirates
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