2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualification explained

Tourney Name:AFC U-23 Championship qualification
Year:2020
Country:Qatar (Group A)
Country2:Bahrain (Group B)
Country3:Iran (Group C)
Country4:Saudi Arabia (Group D)
Country5:Kuwait (Group E)
Country6:Uzbekistan (Group F)
Country7:Mongolia (Group G)
Country8:Cambodia (Group H)
Country9:Myanmar (Group I)
Country10:Malaysia (Group J)
Country11:Vietnam (Group K)
Dates:22–26 March 2019[1]
Num Teams:43
Confederations:1
Venues:13
Cities:11
Matches:63
Goals:240
Prevseason:2018
Nextseason:2022

The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decide the participating teams of the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship.

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Thailand who qualified automatically as hosts country.[2] These matches also served as the first stage of the AFC qualifiers for the 2020 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Japan.

Draw

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 44 teams entered the competition. The final tournament hosts Thailand decided to participate in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament.

The draw was held on 7 November 2018, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[3] [4] The 44 teams were drawn into eleven groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification (overall ranking shown in parentheses; NR stands for non-ranked teams). The following restrictions were also applied:[5]

width=25%Pot 1width=25%Pot 2width=25%Pot 3width=25%Pot 4
West Zonevalign=topvalign=topvalign=topvalign=top
East Zonevalign=topvalign=topvalign=topvalign=top
Notes
Did not enter
West Zonevalign=top
East Zonevalign=top
    • (N)

Player eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 1997 are eligible to compete in the tournament.[6]

Format

In each group, teams play each other once at a centralized venue. The eleven group winners and the four best runners-up qualify for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts Thailand win their group or are among the four best runners-up, the fifth best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3).[6]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
  8. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
  9. Drawing of lots.

Groups

The matches were played between 22 and 26 March 2019.

+Schedule
MatchdayDatesMatches
Groups A–E, G–JGroup F
Matchday 122 March 20191 v 4, 2 v 33 v 1
Matchday 224 March 20194 v 2, 3 v 12 v 3
Matchday 326 March 20191 v 2, 3 v 41 v 2

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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Group I

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Group J

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Group K

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Ranking of second-placed teams

Due to groups having different number of teams (after the withdrawal of Pakistan from Group F), the results against the fourth-placed teams in four-team groups were not considered for this ranking.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship.

TeamQualified asQualified ondata-sort-type="number"Previous appearances in AFC U-23 Championship1
2 (2016, 2018)
2 (2016, 2018)
0 (debut)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
2 (2013, 2016)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
2 (2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
2 (2013, 2016)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)
3 (2013, 2016, 2018)

1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

References

  1. Web site: AFC Competitions Calendar 2019. 28 February 2018.
  2. Web site: FA Thailand proposed as 2020 AFC U-23 Championship host. AFC. 30 August 2018.
  3. Web site: Teams to learn opponents for 2020 Qualifiers. AFC. 6 November 2018.
  4. Web site: Journey to Thailand 2020 begins. AFC. 7 November 2018.
  5. Web site: AFC U23 Championship 2020 Qualifiers Draw. YouTube. 7 November 2018.
  6. Web site: Competition Regulations AFC U-23 Championship 2020. AFC.

External links

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualification".

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