2020 AFC U-19 Championship

2020 AFC U-19 Championship
2020 yil U-19 Osiyo chempionati
Tournament details
Host countryUzbekistan
DatesCancelled [1]
Teams16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)4 (in 3 host cities)
← 2018
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.[2] It was originally scheduled to run between 14 and 31 October 2020,[3] but was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][5]

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.[1]

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.

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.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.[10]

Team Qualified as Appearance Previous best performance
 Uzbekistan Hosts 8th Runners-up (2008)
 Iraq Group A winners 18th Champions (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000)
 Qatar Group B winners 15th Champions (2014)
 Tajikistan Group C winners 5th Quarter-finals (2016, 2018)
 Iran Group D winners 21st Champions (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976)
 Bahrain Group E winners 10th Runners-up (1986)
 Saudi Arabia Group F winners 15th Champions (1986, 1992, 2018)
 Malaysia Group G winners 24th Runners-up (1959, 1960, 1968)
 Australia Group H winners 8th Runners-up (2010)
 South Korea Group I winners 39th Champions (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012)
 Japan Group J winners 38th Champions (2016)
 Indonesia Group K winners 18th Champions (1961)
 Laos 1st best runners-up 6th Quarter-finals (1970)
 Vietnam 2nd best runners-up 20th[note 1] Semi-finals (2016)
 Yemen 3rd best runners-up 7th Group stage (1978, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016)
 Cambodia 5th best runners-up 4th Group stage (1963, 1972, 1974)

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 18 June 2020, 16:30 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.[12][13] 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.

Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
Final Draw
1 2 3 4
Group A  Uzbekistan  Indonesia  Cambodia  Iran
Group B  South Korea  Japan  Iraq  Bahrain
Group C  Saudi Arabia  Australia  Vietnam  Laos
Group D  Qatar  Tajikistan  Malaysia  Yemen

Notes

  1. ^ Between 1959 and 1974 Vietnam competed at AFC tournaments as South Vietnam. A separate North Vietnam state did not join FIFA and they mostly played against other communist and communist-sympathising countries.[11] The team's total appearances included eleven appearances as the South Vietnam national under-20 football team.

References

  1. ^ a b "Latest update on AFC Competitions in 2021". Asian Football Confederation. 25 January 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  2. ^ "Uzbekistan, Bahrain recommended as hosts for 2020 AFC U-19 & U-16 Championships". AFC. 17 September 2019.
  3. ^ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2020". AFC. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018.
  4. ^ "AFC Executive Committee announces updates to 2020 competitions calendar". AFC. 10 September 2020.
  5. ^ "New competition dates approved by AFC Competitions Committee". AFC. 11 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Update on FIFA Women's World Cup and men's youth competitions". FIFA. 24 December 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
  7. ^ "AFC Competitions Committee recommends changes to youth competitions". AFC. 26 November 2018.
  8. ^ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2019". AFC. 9 May 2019. Archived from the original on 16 February 2018.
  9. ^ "الاتحاد الآسيوي لكرة القدم يقرر منح السلطنة حق استضافة مباريات المجموعة الأولى من التصفيات الآسيوية لمنتخبات الشباب بدلا من العراق". Twitter (in Arabic). OFA. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  10. ^ "Uzbekistan 2020 cast finalised". AFC. 30 November 2019. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  11. ^ S. W. Pope; John Nauright (17 December 2009). Routledge Companion to Sports History. Routledge. pp. 595–. ISBN 978-1-135-97813-6.
  12. ^ "Stage set for 2020 AFC U-16 & U-19 Championship draws". AFC. 17 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Stars of tomorrow learn opponents for Uzbekistan 2020". AFC. 18 June 2020.

External links

  • AFC U-19 Championship, the-AFC.com
  • AFC U-19 Championship 2020, stats.the-AFC.com
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