February 14 – It has been a feisty start to the year for the AFC having completed its landmark expanded Women’s Asian Cup and progressed its men’s World Cup qualifiers to the final two rounds.
Its next focus is on the draw for its U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022, the first time the tournament will be staged in Central Asia for the first time, with Uzbekistan hosting 32 matches across the cities of Tashkent and Karshi from June 1 to 19.
The draw also marks a return to a new normality as it will be held in Tashkent on Thursday, the first time for more than two years that the AFC has not been forced by Covid to hold the main draw virtually at their Kuala Lumpur headquarters.
Hosts Uzbekistan start as one of the favourites to wn the 16-team tournament and for the group stage draw are seeded into Pot A with current champions from Thailand 2020 South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Australia who came second and third.
The seedings for the other pots are: Pot 2 – Jordan, Thailand, IAE, and Iran. Pot 3 – Iraq; Qaatar, Vietnam and Japan. Pot 4 – Tajikistan, Malaysia, Kuwait and Turkmenistan.
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan have qualified for the finals for the first time.
The U23 Asian Cup has been a showcase for many of Asia’s emerging stars including providing first international sight of Mehdi Taremi from Iran (now with Porto), AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 winner and top goal scorer Almoez Ali of Qatar, and Japan and Liverpool forward Takumi Minamino.
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