The qualification round draw for the inaugural AFC U22 Championship 2013 football tournament was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia earlier today. There are 42 teams in total who are divided in to 7 groups. India again landed itself in a tough group that consists of UAE, Iraq and Oman apart from Turkmenistan and Lebanon.
On the other hand Nepal and Bangladesh have been grouped together in a relatively much easier group that has Uzbekistan, Jordan and Yemen alongside the 2 teams.
The complete groupings are as follows:
Group A: UAE, Iraq, Oman, India, Turkmenistan, Lebanon
Group B: Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka
Group C: Bahrain, IR Iran, Tajikistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives
Group D: Uzbekistan, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal
Group E: Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Macau, Timor Leste
Group F: DPR Korea, China PR, Thailand, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia
Group G: Korea Republic, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
The teams showed in bold are the ones whose senior national team is participating in the upcoming AFC Challenge Cup in March. Note that Turkmenistan has not participated in the draw.
All the qualifying matches will be organized from June 23rd to July 3rd 2012 and the finals will be played in 2013 while the next edition of the biennial competition (2015) will serve as qualifiers for the 2016 Olympics.
The AFC
According to the-afc.com, a total of 23 countries will feature in the qualifying rounds for the West Zone while 18 nations will compete in the East Zone featuring seven groups of either six or five teams.
The top two teams of the one-round league (14 in total) will qualify for next year’s finals while a berth is also available for one best third-placed team and the AFC U-22 Asian Cup 2013 hosts.
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