| Tourney Name: | AFC U-16 Championship |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Other Titles: | بطولة آسيا تحت 16 سنة 2020 |
| Size: | 160px |
| Country: | Bahrain |
| Dates: | Cancelled |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 3 |
| Cities: | 3 |
| Prevseason: | 2018 |
| Nextseason: | 2023 |
The 2020 AFC U-16 Championship would have been the 19th edition of the AFC U-16 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-16 national teams of Asia. It was scheduled to take place in Bahrain, who had been appointed as the host by the AFC on 17 September 2019.[1] It was originally scheduled between 16 September and 3 October 2020, but was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] [3]
The AFC announced the cancellation of the tournament on 25 January 2021, leaving the hosting rights for the 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup with Bahrain.[4]
Originally, the top four teams of the tournament would have qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Peru as the AFC representatives. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2021 U-17 World Cup was also cancelled, with hosting rights for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup still with Peru.[5]
This edition was expected to be the last to be played as an under-16 tournament, as the AFC have proposed switching the tournament from under-16 to under-17 starting from 2023.[6]
Japan were the defending champions.
See main article: 2020 AFC U-16 Championship qualification.
Qualifying was played from 14 – 22 September 2019.[7] Bahrain also participated in the qualifiers, even though they had already qualified automatically as hosts.
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.[8]
| Team | Qualified as | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8th | (1988) | |||
| 4th | (2018) | |||
| 9th | (2002, 2018) | |||
| 12th | (2008) | |||
| 11th | (1985, 1988) | |||
| 11th | (1990) | |||
| 8th | (1990) | |||
| 15th | (1992, 2004) | |||
| 7th | (2010, 2014, 2018) | |||
| 12th | (2010, 2014) | |||
| 16th | (1994, 2006, 2018) | |||
| 15th | (1986, 2002) | |||
| 6th | (2002) | |||
| 7th | (1990) | |||
| 10th | (2012) | |||
| 11th | (1996, 2000) |
The draw of the final tournament was held on 18 June 2020, 14:30 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.[9] [10] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Bahrain automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
| width=25% | Pot 1 | width=25% | Pot 2 | width=25% | Pot 3 | width=25% | Pot 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| valign=top | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top |