The reigning champions being automatically qualified isn't a non-standard requirement. That being said, it's silly that the runner up and 3rd place qualify as well. By like Team Melli Forever, The idea for challenge cup qualification is great. My reasons being the same as the reasons he mentioned.
I'm biased, but let me say this much. You shouldn't underestimate the Iraqis due to us not being qualified for the world cup. Poor managements and a terrible FA are the reason, the players and talents are there. Our current trainer is a decent one and he is able to call genuinely good players. I really believe we can do that. Having said that, beating the likes of Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran and UAE still won't be easy. Then again, this is what I love about the Asian cup, it's a balanced playing field. Can't wait.
He is not a decent one. He is a bad coach, and has to be replaced but at least he is forced to call up the best players due to the fans. That said, I expect Iraq to make it really far in the Asian Cup. Maybe even making it to the final four
I think he is underrated by the Iraqis. The man has a great relationship with the players (excluding Ahmed Yasin), produces results and represents Iraq in a good way as he is wells spoken and usually respects his opponents. At least he picked Iraq up from the terrible results under Zico and Petrovic. Both dragged Iraq down so badly it's not even funny. I'm pretty sure that Iraq will reach the semi finals or the finals. Japan had a somewhat hard time against Zico's Iraq, which is pathetic compared to the current squad. Then again Japan, South Korea Australia, Uzbekistan, Iran and the other top Asian teams are pretty good, it could go either way.
Are u kidding me? Zico was the best coach Iraq EVER had. He made it possible to advance in the WCQ's. Petrovic had no power. It was basically Najih Humoud coaching Iraq. And Hakim Shaker is lucky to have this squad. He is tactically inept.
Its not non-standard, but should be abolished imo. But its not a big a deal as the runner-up and third place teams getting automatic berths. As for AFC challenge cup, I disagree. Its not AFC's job (at least it shouldnt be) to hold the hands of weaker AFC teams by awarding them an alternative and easier qualifying route. Everyone ought to follow the same qualification scheme and the strongest nations qualify. Sorry to say it, but AFC is still a joke.
They get to play tougher teams in qualification. And if they dont make it to Asia Cup, it means they arent good enough and should invest more in their own infrastructure to become better. I hardly see how diluting the quality of the Asian Cup (even if its not very significant) by awarding 2 spots to winners of a Mickey Mouse tournament will make AFC better and more competetive.
Every team should follow the same qualification route.. I'm sure that North Korea and the 2014 Challenge Cup winner will be the weakest teams at the Asian Cup.
I'll have to disagree there, under Zico Iraq couldn't defeat Oman or Jordan and the football scene was spiraling downards. The talents are obviously there, but he kept on calling the players he liked. In the end we can argue as much as we want but the fact is that Hakeem has far better results than Zico. Hell Hakeems u20 team would trash Zico's National Iraq team pretty badly. Also, saying that Hakeem is tactically inept is just wrong. The tactics deployed in the u20 tournament was actually really solid.
The only problem with Zico was that he was never in Iraq. Apart from that he was a good coach that knew how to make the correct changes. You can not compare Petrovic, Hakim Shaker or any other current Iraqi coach with Zico. Look at how Zico won matches for Iraq, even in his first match he knew how to make changes to improve the side, remember bringing on Emad Mohammed against Jordan, and Emad almost equalising in the opening minutes and then a second after his miss Jordan scored a second and in the Singapore game days later, it was 0-0 at half-time and at half-time he told the players to cross the ball into the box and then Alaa scored with a header. Zico has his flaws but in matches he could read matches, correct things and most importantly win matches. And don't bring youth tournaments into this. We are talking about senior achievements
No they don't play tougher teams. They play each other in a Hunger Games style tournament every four years for the right of one of them to go to another qualification process where they get steamrollered and sent back to the country for the chance to do it all over again in 4 years.....hell, that's if they're lucky. Some of these teams only play strong opposition a few times a decade. They will never develop without constant exposure to a higher level of play.
So the quality of the tournament, measured by the strength of the teams within the confederation, should be sacrificed and diluted for the sake of the kind of teams that end up getting "steamrolled" in qualifiers anyway. I hardly see how that helps AFC in the long run. And at the end of the day, just 2 of them get that exposure to play tougher teams. So the core problem is not really remedied.
I think the point is that it isn't much of a sacrifice for the tournament. It's only 1 team. The strong teams still have plenty of spots to qualify from and the competitiveness of the tournament is not materially affected.
2 actually. Challenge Cup winner of 2012 and 2014 (yet to be decided) Maybe 2 teams is also not that much of a sacrifice, but I still dont see the benefits either. Anyhoo, Im not looking at those in isolation. I mainly take issue with the fact that 6 berths are reserved for countries that dont have to go through qualification when ideally (imo) only the host country should get that privilege.
True. Even the defending champions shouldn't get the berth. But why did Japan go through the 2007 Asia Cup qualification? (They won the 2004 Asian Cup) That is something I still don't get..
It's not diluted. The berths were increased to include them. And it helps the AFC in the long term by increasing the experience to its lower nations. Otherwise, it's just gonna be the same nations year in year out for the rest of the century. 2 teams get stronger and play their compatriots in the AFC Challenge cup, now they provide exposure to them. If they get too strong for the competition and dominate, they graduate from the competition and join the rest of us in qualifying. (as North Korea winning back to back competitions barred them from participating in the next tournament. Besides, I think the 2014 Challenge cup is the last one anyway.
All the AFC Challenge Cup served to do was exclude Palestine from Asian Cup qualifying for two editions. This was disastrous for our FIFA ranking. Not to mention that we were making strides in qualifying: In 2000 we managed go get one win against Pakistan but lost the other games against Kazakhstan, Qatar, Jordan In 2004 we played all our games in the opponents territory and still got two draws (we let up a goal v. Qatar that cost us a point and Kettlun missed a PK that would have got us another two points vs. Singapore) In 2007 we got four points from five games. Including a draw vs. the eventual Asian Cup Champs. All our "home" games were played in Amman. Now we can actually host games (and the senior team has never lost on home soil), we have more players playing abroad, we have a league but we're playing with our B-team every single time when we head to the Challenge Cup because we can't get teams to release our players. I am so happy they're getting rid of this BS tournament. Teams that invest and want to improve will get better (Philippines, Afghanistan) the rest are a bunch of no-hopers who get routed in CC qualification! I can't wait to be able to call up whomever we want whenever we want with the full backing of FIFA and the AFC.
Yeah the nice thing about the regular Asian Cup qualifiers is that matches are scheduled mostly on FIFA match dates so we can call up our players from Europe. The Challenge Cup unfairly handicapped teams where many of their players are based abroad as they cannot get them released. As for the other teams, they will improve with more exposure to stronger competition. It will be better in the long run as in the case of Europe where smaller teams become surprise qualifiers in the European Championships. I would have preferred though if the Asian Cup and World Cup preliminary qualifiers would have stayed separate in the new system, so the weaker teams in the AFC will have more matches to play every four year cycle.
I'm glad for you guys that you can finally participate in Asian Cup qualifiers as it should be Rooting for Palestine in the upcoming Challenge Cup!
The weaker Asian nations play more games combining the qualifiers?? Assuming all 47 teams participate. (8 groups of 5 and 6) weakest nation will play min 10 games (and those 10 games will be very competitive and good value and if this weakest nation comes 2nd last in their group, there is another 6 games to play in the ACQ. so overall, for the weaker sides of Asia, its guaranteed 10 games of competitive football over 4 years, as oppose to 3 min games every 2 years in Challenge Cup plus min of 2 legged playoff game for WCQ... Total 8.
S So does that mean that all participants will be playing in groups? Are the days of preliminary qualifiers over then? If so then this is indeed an improvement for everyone.
Yes, split into 8 groups depending on the number of entries. top 8 + best 4 2nd place (12) = World Cup final qualification round next 24 teams = qualify for 6 groups of 4, Asian Cup qualification. so ideally, if all nations participate, 11 nations will get knocked out, but will play max of 10 games.
You only want the best of the best in the Asian Cup but when it comes to the World Cup far better teams throughout Europe, Africa and South America miss out so Asia and North America are over-represented. Can't have it both ways.