September 4 – Thailand will host the next Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship 2020 which will also act as a qualification for the Olympic games to be held in Tokyo that year.
In a meeting in Tokyo the AFC Competitions Committee also decided that clubs involved in AFC competition and playing ‘neutral’ matches (ie where they cannot host their opponents in their own country) must play all their ‘home’ matches at the same venue and that venue must be in a Member Association which does not have a team in the same group.
The host club shall have the right to nominate the neutral venue unless there are security or safety concerns surrounding their choice of venue or that the facilities are not up to scratch.
The AFC U23 tournament was played this year in China with Uzbekistan winning the title in extreme weather conditions. In 2016 the U23 championship was held in Qatar with Japan came from behind in a thrilling final to beat Korea Republic. They both qualified along with third placed Iraq at the Olympic Games held in Rio de Janeiro that year.
At the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 the AFC will have four qualified teams with Japan as hosts alongside three other teams from the AFC U23 Championships in Thailand.
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