The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup will be the 5th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (prior to 2021 known as the AFC U-23 Championship[1]), a biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia.
The tournament was originally going to be held in Uzbekistan from 6–24 January 2022, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and rescheduled to 1–19 June 2022.[2][3] A total of 16 teams will compete in the tournament.[4]South Korea are the defending champions.
Originally, it was determined that China would host the tournament, as a preparatory competition ahead of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.[5] However, they withdrew from hosting the tournament in October 2020 due to scheduling conflicts, stadium completion timelines ahead of other international events and challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] On 18 March 2021, the AFC announced that Uzbekistan will host the tournament.[2]
Players born on or after 1 January 1999 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team have to register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, a minimum three of whom must be selected as goalkeepers (Regulations Article 26.3).[4]
Group stage[]
The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.
Tiebreakers
Teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):[4]
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);
Uzbekistan
Qatar
Iran
Iraq
Kuwait
United Arab Emirates
Jordan
Australia
South Korea
Vietnam
Malaysia
Japan
Thailand
Saudi Arabia
Turkmenistan
Tajikistan