Good article. The way the AFC has sepeerated the the nations means that the stronger teams will become stronger and the weaker teams will unfortunately get weaker. There is no point for a India or Tajikistan to win the Challenge Cup and go to the Asian cup to play 3 games and get outplayed. They need to be able to go into qualifying tournements. I think as the article stated, create a qualifying format to reduce the minnow teams in order for them to compete into the Asian Cup Qualifiers... say the last 8 who qualify for the Challenge Cup now are allowed to enter the Asian Cup Qualifiers... if you think about it, even the WCQ do not give much exposure to lesser nations, they have 2 rounds of knockout games before entering the group stages, and chances are, luck of the draw, they play 2 games and are already knocked out..
It's tough. The last few years we have been calling for something to bridge the gap between the Challenge Cup teams and the Asian Cup teams. I can only assume that the AFC will have some kind of timeframe in place to move to the next step. It might just be with the emergence of the Philippines for example that the AFC take the next route that litle bit quicker. We have all seen and heard of what the Phills have done. It appears the difference between themselves and other emerging nations is probably budget. If AFC want to keep what they currently have then they need to produce some kind of ranking system so everyone can see clearly just what area they fall into. They have it in Rugby and Tennis (at a small scale) so could do it for football, but they would then need two seperate systems, one for international teams and one for club teams (look at Oman for example, could do a job in top tier in national team but not club football.) Unfortuantly, the AFC seem to have their whole focus on the ACL and time and resources seems to be thrown at that. Maybe just maybe the next AFC President might have a more clear vision. As it stands, let's not forget 10 years ago hardly anything happened in Asia, international club competitions were organised so poorly it might aswell of not happened. Now, maybe we are trying to run too quickly before we have learnt that walk. What really needs to be done is at club football, introuduce relegation/promotion in the Presidents Cup and AFC Cup or just bring them together and at international football produce another mid tier competition just like we have at club football or again bridge the gap.
I have read that the AFC plan to revisit and review the Asia Cup qualifying process after the 2015 edition. That is good because it definitely needs reworking. If they don't want to follow the European example, then maybe they can follow what edrees has suggested. Use the Challenge Cup as a qualifier but add the final 8 into the Asian Cup qualifying competition. That would avoid the large disparities that you used to see in the Oceania qualifying competition that made a mockery of the World Cup qualifiers when Australia was part of their confederation, but still allow some of the emerging and developing members of the AFC who are still somewhat competitive, to be exposed to quality competition. This is also the best way for emerging nations to develop as exposure to higher standards of football usually helps them improve as has been demonstrated by teams like Venezuela in South America whose main sport is baseball but whose football standard has improved through the years after constantly being exposed to the very competitive cauldron of South American football. Finally, there should be no seeded teams in Asian Cup qualifying competition as this removes the romantic element of football where the small teams can dream to occasionally face WC qualified teams.
If there is seeding i believe based on challenge cup 2012 this is how it will be Pot A Turkmenistan Phillipines Palestine Tajikistan --------------------- POT B Maldives Nepal India kyrgistan ------------------------ POT C Afghanistan Pakistan Myanmar Sri Lanka ---------------------------- play of round for POT D Chinese Tiapi Cambodia brunie mongolia Laos Macau Guam Northern marian islands
Regulations AFC Challenge Cup 2012 (Qualifiers) 18. Competition System a) The Competition shall consist of one or two stages depending on the number of entries i. If there are more than sixteen (16) teams, the lower ranked teams (based on AFC Challenge Cup 2010 rankings) will play in a Home/Away play-off to determine the sixteen (16) qualifiers ii. Sixteen (16) teams or lesser to play in Group Stage Qualification (League system) b) Depending on the number of entries or in the case of withdrawals or suspensions of teams, the AFC Competitions Committee reserves the right and may change the Competition System (cf. Art. 18) and the Technical Regulations (cf. Art. 19) c) The AFC Competitions Committee forms groups and/or sub-groups for the Competition by drawing lots whilst taking sports, geographic and economic factors into consideration, as far as possible. ------------------------------- This was the regulations for 2012 AFC Challenge Cup.
You're definitely right, druryfire. Since 2011, the PFF have been assisted by monetary aids from the DFB (German Football Federation), FIFA and the private sector. And with the seemingly very fast progression of the team, which has never seen before for an emerging team anywhere else in world football, the AFC have to re-think of their ways in letting these lower-ranked nations play against the big guns of the continent, never minding "blowout" results. Talking about budget, in the recent economic downturn, many nations in the lower rung are very affected by this, and not only those nations with disposable incomes like Japan, South Korea or the Middle East countries. The Philippines is also affected by the crisis as it is a trading partner with Spain and the United States, being a former colony. But the recent administration did sought ways to compensate the lack of income, by reintroducing the sport through the national team and its victories in the past 2 years. I do hope lower feds, like in Timor Leste for instance, could be wise enough to be competitive while not risk to lose funding. I do think a promotion/relegation system is appropriate for the AFC's case with its large membership, but bringing them altogether is a better option. I am afraid though that they will not consider it again after the 2015 Asian Cup as I think it could start a shakeup especially those higher-ranked teams who do not want to play "minnows."
AFC will keep it the way it is. This makes the stronger nations happy, the minnow nations happy that 'atleast' they are getting some game time.. who is in a loss, are the middle tier nations who are too weak against the top sides but too strong for the lower sides. If only they would listen and pit everyone against each other, and if not, atleast get the 8-12 best teams from the qualifers and pit them against stronger teams in the Asian Cup qualifiers...
Tajikistan Football Federation submitted an official bid to host the finals of the Challenge Cup Asian Football Confederation in Tajikistan. In addition to requests for Tajikistan Cup Final AFC Challenge filed Maldives, Philippines and India. Add that final tournament Challenge Cup will be held in March 2014, and the victor will receive a ticket to the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. decision on where to host the final stage of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012, will be taken in November at a meeting of the Organizing Committee and the President's Cup AFC Challenge Cup. Host country Challenge Cup 2014 will automatically qualify for the final of and does not participate in the qualifying rounds. Earlier, the AFC announced that the draw for the qualifying tournament Challenge Cup will be held on October 25 in the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Now draw postponed to November. qualifying tournament in the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 will be attended by 20 teams. Northern Mariana Islands national team debut in the new drawing. The current holder of the trophy team of the DPRK, which has already received a ticket to the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia, will not participate in the new Cup challenge. recall that the national team of Tajikistan is the first AFC Challenge Cup, which was held in 2006 in Bangladesh. http://www.cissoccer.com/news/11771.html Google translated , but ok 1 .Draw been postponed to November. 2. Tajikistan , Philippines , India and Maldives want to host the finals. Host will not participate in the qualifiers but get a direct entry to the finals
I don't quite know what to make of this. The President of FAM has been yapping away about how confident he is about Maldives winning the bid. Apparently, AFC would be "prioritising us" as we bid for the last edition of the tournament. We eventually lost out to Nepal with, according to unconfirmed rumours () , the help of Ganesh Thapa's long arms. I would rather see us play the qualifiers as I'm sure that will be the only decent match practice we will receive before the tournament. If we manage to win the bid, FAM would probably arrange two rubbish friendlies against Bhutan at the 11th hour and we'll go to the tournament all disjointed and unprepared like we did the last time.
Probably makes sense now. Automatic qualification to the hosts, freeing up a slot for Bangladesh in the qualifiers and the AFC just hasn't said anything yet.
If the host gets a direct entry into final stage, it would benefit Afghanistan. If the 2012 qualification format is used, Afghanistan will be placed in Pot 3, but if the host gets direct entry, Afghanistan will be placed in Pot B and thus facing weaker opponents.
It hasnt been stated officially on the AFC site, so at this stage, unofficial reports suggest it has been postponed till Nov (exact date not known)
Cambodia withdrawing from AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers ? http://www.football-roubroum.co.cc/2012/10/cambodia-will-not-joint-afc-challenge.html
Don't expect any word from the AFC until the day the draw is done. As usual, shoddy treatment from AFC. They treat anything other than Asian Cup or Champions League with so little respect it's unbelievable
very poor on behalf of AFC to not official announce the delay in the draw.... If AFC ever want to be as profressional as UEFA, then is needs to treat all nations with profresionalism. AFC only focusses on Japan, South Korea and now Australia
Since Cambodia is no longer participating in the afc challenge cup that means that either dou the host has automatic qualification if the seeding is based on the 2012 afc challenge cup afghanistan will be in pot c no matter what, which means the will 100% be in a group with the top 4 teams phillipines, palestine, Tajikistan, Turkmenista(unless tajikistan or phillipines hosts) and in a group with either maldives, India, kyrgistan, or nepal, (unless Maldives or India hosts.) and every other team we could beat . Also I believe that the seeding should be based on the rankings because how is the 2012 afc challenge cup gonna determine which pot a team should be, because lets say for example if Tajikistan gets knocked out as 4th in qualifiers then they would have to play in qualifiying phase