Counted again? AFC changes rules: the national youth falls to the 4th gear of the Asian Cup into the group of death + the first game against a strong opponent

19/12/2024 10:22:00 PlaymakerHub

On December 19, Beijing time, Ma Dexing revealed that due to the AFC's temporary adjustment of the Asian Cup classification basis, the Chinese national youth (U17 men's football team) fell from the original 3rd team to the 4th team, which means that the difficulty of the national youth team to enter the top 8 in Asia and qualify for the World Junior Championship at the end of next year has further increased.

In the previous U17 Asian preliminaries, the national youth team finally drew 2-2 with the opponent and ranked second in the group, but still qualified for the Asian Cup with the second place in the group with the best result. According to the original rules, the national youth team was ranked in the third bracket in the Asian Cup draw, but the AFC temporarily changed the rules last month, no longer using the results of the last session as the basis for the classification, but based on the results of the past three editions, and it will be implemented from January 1, 2025.

Since two of the last three competitions have not even qualified for the finals, this has directly led to the national youth falling from the original 3rd to the 4th. Not only does it mean that the national youth may encounter strong teams or even enter the "group of death" in the Asian Cup group, but more importantly, the schedule of the group stage will also undergo major changes.

Because it is a Pot 4 team, the first game will be against a strong team in Pot 1, and the opponents may be Japan, South Korea, Iran or Saudi Arabia. The outcome will have a big impact on the morale of the next two games.

According to the arrangement, the group draw for the tournament is scheduled for January 23 next year, while the U17 Asian Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia from April 3 to 20 next year. The top eight finishers in the event, the top two in each group, will qualify for the World Junior Championships in Qatar next November.