The draw for the 2024 AFC U-23 Cup qualifiers was drawn on Thursday
On Thursday, May 25, the draw for the AFC U-23 2024 qualifiers will take place in Qatar, at 3:00 pm local time, at the Asian Football Confederation headquarters in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
43 teams will participate in the qualifiers, as this will be the sixth edition in the history of the tournament, and the qualifiers will be held from 4 to 12 September.
The participating teams will be divided into 11 groups, so that 10 groups include four teams, while the last group includes three teams.
The qualifying competitions are held in a split league system by gathering from one round, so that the first-placed team in each group, along with the four best second-placed teams, qualifies for the finals, to join the host Qatar team.
The finals will witness the participation of 16 teams, as the competitions will take place from April 15 to May 3, 2024.
The teams participating in the qualifiers were classified according to the results of the last edition of the tournament in 2022 in Uzbekistan, where the teams that did not participate in that tournament came at the lowest level.
With the participation of the Qatar national team in the qualifiers, the matches played by the team in the qualifiers will be considered as friendly and will not be taken into account when determining the group arrangement, and the Qatar national team will be considered as unclassified.
Qualifying matches will be hosted by 11 countries: Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, and they will be placed in the same pot at the start of the draw.
Classification of teams participating in the qualifiers
– 1 to 11: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Japan, Australia, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand, Jordan, UAE.
– From 12 to 22: Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Tajikistan, Bahrain, Myanmar, Cambodia, Syria, India, Singapore, Indonesia
– From 23 to 33: Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Yemen, Timor-Leste, Chinese Taipei, Lebanon, Laos, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Maldives, Oman
– 34 to 35, unseeded teams: Mongolia, Philippines, Afghanistan, Brunei, China, North Korea, Guam, Macau, Palestine and Qatar
Arrangement of bowls
The first level: Japan, Australia, Iraq, Turkmenistan, UAE
The second level: Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Syria, India, Singapore
The third level: Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Yemen, East Timor, Chinese Taipei, Lebanon, Laos, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Maldives, Oman
The fourth level: Mongolia, Philippines, Afghanistan, Brunei, North Korea, Guam, Macau, Pakistan, Qatar
Host Countries Bowl: Bahrain, China, Indonesia, Jordan, South Korea, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam
And the Saudi national team was crowned the title of the last edition of the tournament during the month of June of last year, after defeating the host Uzbekistan in the final match, as that version witnessed record numbers of follow-up and interaction through digital platforms.