Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Uzbekistan and Bahrain are recommended as the hosts of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 and U-16 Championships – the stages for the Asian football stars of the future – respectively in 2020.
At the AFC Competitions Committee’s first meeting of the 2019-2023 cycle chaired by Dr. Tran Quoc Tuan, they selected Uzbekistan and Bahrain as they were considered to have the most appropriate facilities for age-group football.
The opportunity to assist Uzbekistan’s football development – combined with the availability of the necessary facilities – was considered important while Bahrain, having bid to host both events, achieved the highest evaluation points on the inspection visit for the U-16 event.
The U-19 tournament will be played between October 14 and 31, 2020 while the U-16 Championship will take place between September 16 and October 3, 2020.
The AFC Solidarity Cup, which provides more competitive matches for the bottom 10 ranked countries (the six eliminated in the first round of the Joint Asian Qualifiers and the bottom four teams in the second round) will be played between November 30, 2020 and December 13, 2020 – once the final round of qualifiers for the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 are concluded.
The Committee also agreed with a recommendation that in 2020, the AFC Champions League Round of 16 matches in the West Zone should be moved from May 25/26 and June 15/16 to May 18/19 and May 25/26, 2020.