AFC Challenge Cup 2014

I believe they are retaining the same 2012 format. A couple of preliminary games and then 4 groups of four teams in the 2013 qualifying round with the top two advancing to the finals.

 

Kuala Lumpur: The Northern Mariana Islands will make its debut in the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 whose qualifying draw will be held on 25 October 2012 at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.
The Northern Mariana Islands is one of 20 nations confirmed to be participating member associations who had expressed their interest to take part before the deadline of 7 September 2012.
The other participants are Afghanistan, Brunei DS, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Guam, India, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
DPR Korea, the 2010 edition winners, were again the champions this year after beating Turkmenistan 2-1 in March in Nepal while the Philippines defeated Palestine 4-3 to emerge third place winners.
The AFC Challenge Cup is the pathway for the champions to gain a qualification to the top continental championship, the AFC Asian Cup.

http://www.the-afc.com/en/tournaments/men-a-youth/afc-challenge-cup/39947-northern-mariana-debuts-in-challenge-cup

 

So, once again Timor-Leste don't enter, but we also have Bhutan and surprisingly Bangladesh who haven't entered to 2014 edition.

Does anyone know why Bangladesh don't want to take part?

 

Perhaps they will host the tournament again.

 

Normally you have to enter and qualify to be a host.

We have 20 nations taking part. Assuming no direct qualification is put in place, we will have 4 groups of 4 teams in a final qualifying round and a Preliminary round featuring 4 sides - probably, NMI, Guam, Macau and Brunei.

If Bangladesh were to be hosts, then this really would need AFC to work their magic to make this happen, giving a pre-conceived look on the tournament.

Anyway, time to get the hosting out of South Asia, possibly a Myanmar, Cambodia or Philippines could host for the SEA region or a Chinese Taipei for example.

 

DPR Korea are not participating?

 

Wouldn't need to as they've already made Asian Cup.

My earlier comment on a 4 team preliminary round is wrong. They would need need 16 teams in a final qualifying series, so 8 teams same as last edition is needed, so the teams featuring should be, Brunei, NMI, Guam, Macau, Mongolia, Laos, Chinese Taipei and Cambodia going on previous editions lowest placed sides (and new entrants).

 

Hm, maybe Bangladesh want a rebuilding period or something like that. Its weird.

 

That shouldn't stop them from not entering. Unless the AFC has some rule about that? The fact they've already made it to the Asian Cup, all the more you'd expect them to join and defend their title. They don't have much else. Had they joined and defended their title (again), the runner-up would've qualified for the Asian Cup.

But oh well, I guess it will make it an interesting tournament without them. Perhaps the most interesting since the inaugural edition.

 

The PFF have already indicated their intention to bid to host both the qualifiers next year and the finals if they qualify. As druryfire said, since SEA has had very few opportunities to host this event, there is a good chance that the Philippine bid will be considered by the AFC.

East Asia can also be a candidate if Chinese Taipei offers to bid as well but so far they have not indicated any interest. We probably would have to wait for the preliminary rounds to be finished before we find out if they have any interest in doing so.

I am surprised that Timor Leste is again not participating. They actually have an improving team. They are probably limiting their participation to a few events for financial reasons. It is too bad that the AFC does not have a budget like the CONCACAF has of helping finance the travel expenses of their smaller members in their official tournaments so teams like Timor Leste, Bangladesh and Bhutan can participate.

As for North Korea, I don't see any reason why they would want to participate since they have already qualified to the Asian Cup.

 

Well yes. I would prefer to see the defending champions try and defend. And since thye haven't entered, this tells me, that this is the escape route to Asian Cup, they or AFC don't really care about the tournament, but see it as an easy way into the finals.

Personally, if I was coach, I would still try to get my team entered and use it to get experience for my lesser experienced players. Just the fact of going abroad for a week and the ho ha over preperation in this day and age is vital.

Also, the winners of 2014 kind f have it taken away from them, they won't have taken the crown from DPR, but by default.

With 20 teams confirmed, I do wonder why. Bangladesh, DPR missing, does seem FC only wanted 20 to fit to a schedule, they didn't want odd numbers.

 

Afghanistan should have an interesting team for the challenge cup, currently they have a 8 team premier league comp from teams/players from all around Afghanistan so for the first time, Afghanistan National team will compromise from the best players of the nation and not just the capital... having said that the influence of the abroad players too...

 

If the AFC chooses to use the same qualifying format (which seems the likely scenario) here is what we are looking at for the qualifying round in March:

(I used www.football-ranks.info October projection for these rankings):

Direct Entry to Group Stage:
1. Turkmenistan (124)
2. Tajikistan (136)
3. Palestine (148)
4. Philippines (151)
5. Maldives (157)
6. Afghanistan (162)
7. Nepal (163)
8. India (166)
9. Pakistan (176)
10. Sri Lanka (178)
11. Myanmar (182)
12. Mongolia (183)


Playoff Round Participants:
13. Cambodia (185)
14. Chinese Taipei (186)
15. Guam (187)
16. Laos (196)
17. Kyrgyzstan (198)
18. Macau (202)
19. Brunei (203)
20. Northern Mariana Islands (NR)

Did Not Enter:
Korea DPR (86)
Bangladesh (168)
Timor Leste (206)
Bhutan (207)

 

Yes, thats whats been used in previous editions. I expect it will be the same for this edition.

 

Not a big difference, only Kyrgyzstan replacing Mongolia in direct entry to group stage.

 

I wont expect much yet. The league is young. If they can actually run a smooth league for 2-3 years then they will make a run.

 

Looking over the teams that avoided the playoff round last time around it seems that that is what happened. But for 2010 qualifying the AFC used FIFA ranking to determine seeding- then again a lot has changed since then (no direct qualifying and I don't think they'll pick out hosts until after the draw).

The only real difference as Jonny63 mentioned is that Kyrgyzstan sneaks in and gets placed in Pot 2 instead of having to go through a playoff.

If they chose to seed teams according to previous performance:

1. Turkmenistan
2. Philippines
3. Palestine
4. Tajikistan
-----------------
5. Maldives
6. Nepal
7. India
8. Kyrgyzstan
------------------
9. Afghanistan
10. Pakistan
11. Myanmar
12. Sri Lanka

Playoff Round:
13. Chinese Taipei
14. Cambodia
15. Macau
16. Mongolia
17. Laos
18. Guam
19. Brunei (gets a low seed due to suspension, I think)
20. North Mariana Islands.

 

Anyone know of potential hosts for the qualifying stages? I know the Philippines has expressed interest. Palestine wants to host the finals so I suspect they'll put forth their name as well...

 

25th October qualifying draw, so we should know more about how the Cup will be formatted. I do hope that this Cup only invites nations who are indeed the developing nations, and not nations like North Korea, India, etc. Even Tajikistan (played in group stage of WCQ) and Turkmenistan (achieved 2nd last edition) should be given a chance with the bigger asian nations...

 

This is where i find that there should be some sort of promotion/relegation between Asian Cup Qualifiers and Challenge Cup.. Although winning the challenge cup is easier for a minnow nation, The ultimate aim for nations in the Challenge Cup is to develop and aim to be able to make the group stages of the Asian WCQ and also play against better opposition in the Asian Cup Qualifiers.

the list below is the current Fifa rankings as at Oct-12. (not that its an ideal way to differentiate the latter 20 nations to participate in the Challenge Cup, it still gives us a good indication. Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Palestine, Maldives, Philippines all miss out and I feel that all these are entitled to play against the bigger boys and I am sure they will give the likes of Thailand and co a run for their money..in the opposite direction Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia are declining and should be given a chance to step back 'up' ...

Malaysia
Singapore
Nepal
Afghanistan
India
Bangladesh
Indonesia
Chinese Taipei
Pakistan
Guam
Sri Lanka
Myanmar
Mongolia
Cambodia
Laos
Kyrgyzstan
Macau
Brunei Darussalam
Timor-Leste
Bhutan

 

http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?option=details&news_id=2325636&date=2012-10-06

Bangladesh reporting that they WILL participate in qualifiers from 2-17 March 2013.

 

so thats 21 nations now..

there will be a knockout to reduce it to 16 I assume played prior to March 2

 

edrees,

Here is another discussion on he Asia Cup qualifying format plus Challenge Cup along with several coach'es opinions on the matter.

http://gulfnews.com/sport/football/debate-over-asian-cup-qualifying-1.1087565

The former Cambodian coach Scott O' Donnell has a nice take on the matter:

“From a coach’s point of view, not playing in the Asian Cup qualification is an opportunity lost. The only way teams like Cambodia can improve is by playing against better teams more often. It is not until World Cup qualifiers that teams like Cambodia get the opportunity to play teams outside of the ASEAN region.
“I would actually like to see pre-qualification qualifiers so the lower-ranked teams get to play more competitive games. I know the Challenge Cup tries to serve this purpose but playing games from other regions in Asia will give the teams the opportunity to play against teams with different styles, in different climates and conditions.”