May 19 – The AFC will broaden the base of is return from the covid pandemic next week with the draw (May 24) for the AFC U17 Asian Cup Bahrain 2023 and AFC U20 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2023.
The draws will be a milestone event in the confederation’s fierce battle against the coronavirus, marking the full-scale return of elite men’s youth football in Asia since 2018.
The U17 and U20 age groups replace the U16 and U19 competitions respectively. This will also be the first time the competitions have been organised without the AFC’s zoning principle, with all teams for the centralised group games being drawn from the same pots.
For the U17 group stages, 10 host associations – Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam – will be placed in the Host Pot and drawn first.
The other nations will be allocated draw pots based on the AFC U-16 Championship Malaysia 2018 rankings.
Pot 1 – Japan, Korea Republic, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Yemen and Thailand.
Pot 2 – Iraq, Malaysia, Afghanistan, China PR, Hong Kong and Brunei Darussalam.
Pot 3 – Myanmar, Timor-Leste, Qatar, Palestine, Syria, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Nepal.
Pot 4 – Lebanon, Laos, Philippines, Mongolia, Maldives, Guam, Bhutan, Macau, Sri Lanka and Northern Marina Islands
Pot 5 – Kuwait, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Similarly, 44 teams will be allocated to six groups of four teams and four groups of five in the U20 Qualifiers draw based on their AFC U-19 Championship Indonesia 2018 ranking.
Host nations are Bahrain, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Mongolia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan, who will host the Qualifiers from September 10 to 18, 2022.
Pot 1 – Korea Republic, Qatar, Japan, Thailand, Australia and UAE.
Pot 2 – China PR, Malaysia, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, IR Iran, Yemen and Syria.
Pot 3 – Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Lebanon, Macau, Hong Kong, Philippines and Palestine.
Pot 4 – Turkmenistan, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Maldives, Brunei Darussalam, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Pot 5 – Afghanistan, Bhutan, Guam, Kuwait, the Northern Mariana Islands and Uzbekistan.
The 10 group winners, along with the five best runners-up in both Qualifiers will advance to the AFC U17 Asian Cup Bahrain 2023 and U20 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2023.
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