January 25 – The AFC is changing the qualifying formats of its U17 and U20 Asian Cups in a bid to optimise its competitions calendar and encourage stronger youth structures within its member associations.
The decision to revamp qualifying was taken to address “the technical gaps resulting in large score margins and early mathematical eliminations.”
The new qualification proposals were made by the AFC Competitions Committee meeting last weekend at the U23 Asian Cup finals in Saudi Arabia. They have to be ratified by the full AFC Executive Committee before implementation.
For the U17 Asian Cup, the Confederation’s Regional Associations will, from 2027, organise their own qualifying competitions as the pathway to the Finals, the first being in 2028.
The competitions committee approved a new slot allocation system with each Zone – (East and ASEAN) and West (Central, South, and West) regions – each receiving 50% of the 16 available slots based on historical performances. The exact breakdown is: ASEAN – 4, East – 4, Central – 3, South – 1, West – 4.
The Finals host would receive automatic qualification as one of the slots assigned to its respective Zone. RAs will play qualifiers in the two windows marked for the qualifiers – from January to February for Finals to be in the first half of the same year, and from July to October for Finals the following year.
U20 qualifiers reformatted
The U20 Asian Cup will introduce a new format comprising a two-phase system with a promotion and relegation mechanism.
Qualification Phase: 32 teams divided into eight groups of four, with the group winners and the seven best second-placed teams advancing to the Finals. The bottom teams will be relegated to the Development Phase of the subsequent edition.
Development Phase: With a maximum of 14 teams across three groups, top-performing teams will earn promotion to the Qualification Phase for the next cycle.
The current draw seeding for the U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers will be the initial baseline for the first edition in 2027, with subsequent seedings determined by the new promotion and relegation results.
The AFC Administration will now work with the RAs to finalise competition plans and operational arrangements for the U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers and to confirm and/or adjust the format of the AFC U20 Asian Cup™ Qualifiers as necessary.
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