Jordan (Group A) Uzbekistan (Group B) Iran (Group C) Saudi Arabia (Group D) Qatar (Group E) Kyrgyzstan (Group F) Indonesia (Group G) Vietnam (Group H) Singapore (Group I) Laos (Group J) Myanmar (Group K)
The 2020 AFC U-16 Championship qualification was an international men's under-16 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2020 AFC U-16 Championship.
A total of 16 teams qualified for the final tournament, including Bahrain who had qualified automatically as hosts.[1]
West: 25 teams from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, were drawn into six groups: one group of five teams and five groups of four teams (Groups A–F).
East: 22 teams from ASEAN and East Asia, were drawn into five groups: two groups of five teams and three groups of four teams (Groups G–K).
The teams were seeded in each zone according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament and qualification (overall ranking shown in parentheses; NR stands for non-ranked teams). The following restrictions were also applied:[4]
The eleven teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.
(Q): Final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results
Player eligibility[]
Players born on or after 1 January 2004 were eligible to compete in the tournament.[5]
Format[]
In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The eleven group winners and the four best runners-up qualified for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts (Bahrain) won their group or were among the four best runners-up, the fifth best runner-up would have also qualified for the final tournament.[3]
Tiebreakers[]
Teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):[5]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
Drawing of lots.
Schedule[]
The matches were played between 14 and 22 September 2019.
^ abcAFC awarded Palestine, Maldives and Iran a 3–0 win as a result of Afghanistan fielding two ineligible players.[6] The original match results were Afghanistan 2–2 Palestine, Maldives 0–3 Afghanistan and Iran 4–0 Afghanistan.