| Tourney Name: | AFC U-19 Championship |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Other Titles: | 2020 yil U-19 Osiyo chempionati |
| Size: | 170px |
| Country: | Uzbekistan |
| Dates: | Cancelled |
| Num Teams: | 16 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 4 |
| Cities: | 3 |
| Prevseason: | 2018 |
| Nextseason: | 2023 |
The 2020 AFC U-19 Championship would have been the 41st edition of the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. It was scheduled to take place in Uzbekistan, who had been appointed as the host by the AFC on 17 September 2019.[1] It was originally scheduled to run between 14 and 31 October 2020,[2] but was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] [4]
The AFC announced the cancellation of the tournament on 25 January 2021, leaving the hosting rights for the 2023 AFC U-20 Asian Cup with Uzbekistan.[5]
Originally, the top four teams of the tournament would have qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia as the AFC representatives, plus Indonesia who qualified automatically as the World Cup hosts. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic, the 2021 U-20 World Cup was also cancelled, with hosting rights for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup still kept with Indonesia.[6]
This edition was expected to be the last to be played as an under-19 tournament, as the AFC have proposed switching the tournament from under-19 to under-20 starting from 2023.[7]
Saudi Arabia were the defending champions.
See main article: 2020 AFC U-19 Championship qualification.
Qualification matches were played in November 2019.[8] [9] Uzbekistan also participated in the qualifiers, even though they had already qualified automatically as hosts.
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.[10]
| Team | Qualified as | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8th | (2008) | |||
| 18th | (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000) | |||
| 15th | (2014) | |||
| 5th | (2016, 2018) | |||
| 21st | (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976) | |||
| 10th | (1986) | |||
| 15th | (1986, 1992, 2018) | |||
| 24th | (1959, 1960, 1968) | |||
| 8th | (2010) | |||
| 39th | (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012) | |||
| 38th | (2016) | |||
| 18th | (1961) | |||
| 1st | 6th | (1970) | ||
| 2nd | 20th | (2016) | ||
| 3rd | 7th | (1978, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016) | ||
| 5th | 4th | (1963, 1972, 1974) |
The draw of the final tournament was held on 18 June 2020, 16:30 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.[11] [12] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Uzbekistan 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 |