1 of the possibility Since AFC announced 8 grps I will stick with it & here what I think may happen All 47 teams enter including Northern Mariana Preliminary round 14 teams play two-legged match 7 winners go through Group stage 40 teams (7 winners + 33 best ranked) play in 8 groups of 5 12 teams (8 group winners and 4 best second-placed teams) qualify to WC qualification round and win Asian Cup Finals berth 24 teams qualify to Asian Cup Qualifiers 4 teams are knocked out here World Cup qualifiers 12 teams, format unknown (2 groups of 6 OR 3 groups of 4) Asian Cup Qualifiers 24 teams play in 6 groups of 4 Top 2 of each group reach Asian Cup Finals 12 teams knocked out here Asian Cup Finals (played in 2019 & host likely to be chosen from 1 of the 24) 24 teams play in 6 groups of 4 Winner go to Confederation Cup So 7 teams played min 2 games, 4 teams played min 8-10 games, 24 teams min 14-16 games. Those in WCQ group will play min 14-16 games
Washington Times (Associated Press) Asian Cup expansion sparks debate A proposal to expand the Asian Cup to 24 teams has sparked a debate among the region’s football bodies, with commercial and developmental considerations on one side, and on the other a fear that it will dilute the quality of the competition. The Asian Football Confederation's Competitions Committee recommended on the weekend that the quadrennial tournament be expanded from 16 to 24 teams. Advocates say it will increase the likelihood that big commercial markets like China, India and Southeast Asian nations would be involved in the tournament, while also fast-tracking the development of smaller nations by exposing them to higher-quality opponents. If China loses in February to Iraq in the final round of qualification for the 2015 Asian Cup, and with India already eliminated, then the Australia-hosted tournament would be without representation from the two most populous countries in the world and probably Southeast Asia too - with a shared population of around three billion. “In the end, all will benefit in terms of tournament profile and exposure and it will also provide significant commercial benefits that will help Asia as a whole,” said Philippines Football Federation president Mariano Nonong Araneta. The more powerful nations of Asia are concerned it will damage their teams’ development to play against minnow nations, and harm the Asian Cup’s image as an elite competition. “The standards at the Asian Cup have improved in recent times and if Asian teams are to compete at the world level then it is important for everyone that it continues to improve,” said Park Yong-soo, the head of the Korea Football Association’s International Deparment. “Having more teams is likely to reduce the overall quality. While we recognize that we have a duty to help the smaller nations develop, we need more time to discuss the issue.” According to the Philippines chief, the drop in quality will not be as severe as some may fear. “We and other teams in Asia are catching up with the traditional powers such as Japan, Korea and Iran,” said Nonong. “These teams need the chance to show what they can do and a bigger Asian Cup would be a great chance to do so.” For the smaller nations, a short-term drop in standard is a price worth paying. Guam has been one of the fastest-improving teams in Asia in recent years. The tiny Pacific island nation has climbed from 201st in FIFA rankings in 2004 to its present standing of 162 and within sight of the continent’s top-ranked 24 teams.. Gary White, the national team’s English coach, has been at the helm for two years and believes that competing in the Asian Cup would help the national team go to the next level. “Expansion would be a positive move from our standpoint as we are extremely aggressive in regards to being competitive,” White said. “We believe we would claim one of the extra spots into future tournaments.”
Plan B: Preliminary round 30 teams play two-legged match 15 winners go through Group stage 32 teams (15 winners + 17 best ranked) play in 8 groups of 4 12 teams (8 group winners and 4 best second-placed teams) qualify to WC qualification round and win Asian Cup Finals berth 20 teams eliminated from group stage + 4 best teams eliminated from preliminary round qualify to Asian Cup Qualifiers Plan C: No preliminary round is required! Group stage 47 teams play in 8 groups of 5 or 6 (format like UEFA WCQ) 12 teams (8 group winners and 4 best second-placed teams) qualify to WC qualification round and win Asian Cup Finals berth 4 second placed + 8 third placed + 8 fourth placed + 4 best fifth-placed teams qualify to Asian Cup Qualifiers I prefer Plan C the most but some forums in mainland China said that 32 teams will enter the group stage only.
If the AFC goes through with this format, they should be weary to make sure that there are few nations that miss out (and be frozen for 4 years). If there are like 30 teams to play off for 15 spots (spot in group stage) AFC are not trying to bridge the gap.. The lessor the prelim loser teams, the better it is.. The gap between between middle and low tier nations is not much of a gab these days..
To be honest, 24 teams in the Asian Cup is borderline between a joke and an opportunity, as far as the AFC management and the elite nations are concerned. Even the World Cup, though, is borderline with the number of teams and the continental associations they represent (with a bias for Europe, BTW). TV coverage of course is king, but you can dilute the exciting qualification stages to the point where making the Cup becomes a bit of a ho-hum.
Tajikistan Football Federation website says "If all 47 member associations of the Asian Football Confederation confirm their participation in the first qualifying round, then 7 groups of 6 team will be formed and one group of 5 team. The matches will be played on home and away basis."
I guess it should be through more than 2 years, so it is possible and gives more matches to all teams.
Opening up the competition for national teams might just help open it up for club competitions aswell, to be all inclusive. But you know what will happen, similar to youth competitions, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, etc, etc will get drawn against Japan, Korea etc, etc and will withdraw giving us lopsided groups, so OK, these teams won't qualify, but they disrupt the flow, they make a matchday not a matchday. Interesting times though. I like the fact that everyone is included rather than the current your in, your out which has been in place. Would once again be nice to hear from the AFC what their plans are.... it's OK announcing something that hasn't been Okayed by the committees yet, but how do the committees decide yes/no if no one actually knows what system will be in place. At the moment all they say is include all teams, once ratified they make a formula which they should be making now and actually informing us, not keeping us fans on the outside. The biggest problem AFC face is this potential 24 team Asian Cup, it's just too many teams. In reality, qualification should be made harder with only 8 teams making the finals, qualification would be much better and big nations would miss out, now, big nations will get their without actually doing anything.
I don't like 24 teams in the Asian Cup. Only the best 16 deserve it. Will the likes of Afghanistan, Vietnam, Hong Kong or Singapore really be an addition for the tournament?
It doesn't necessarily improve the Asia Cup, however what it is doing is giving more exposure, matches to all nations so all of the confederation improve as a whole. At the moment there is a big gab between the top 5... the middle 35, and the final 7 (thats my opinion of the current skill level) Lets looks at Uefa, every nations gets many matches, and in the past we have seen new and improved nations qualifying for European Cups / World Cups... Improving the confederation as a whole only makes all nations stronger.
I argue with this, smaller for me is better. Let's look at 2014 WC, only one new nation, Bosnia. Making bigger doesn't make it better. My country, England can easily qualify for a 24 team tournament by playing absurdly poor, yet when UEFA was only an 8 tournament they would struggle to qualify. So, move onto today, yes more nations, so I think 16 is enough for the surprise nation - of course lowing to 8 would ruin the surprise nation, so 16 is enough. 24 teams, will add you 6 teams that shouldn't be anywhere near it. For AFC, it will add numbers of TV viewers from India, China and Philippines, that's how it works for Asia, rubbish tournament, but bigger media sales.
At face value, 24 team tournaments are not awkward, but I think it will not work if their quality is lackluster. If they want to generate interest then they need to change schedules, or not coinciding them with the World Cup qualifying.
Well you also need to look at how much enthusiasm is in football for India after they played in Asian Cup 2011... The nation has totally changed and are doing all sorts of grassroots / education to boost its nation in football.. Yes they got totally outplayed in the Asian Cup 2011 but look at what they have been trying to implement... More exposure, makes progress for middle tier nations, and the gap within Asia is decrease therefore strengthen Asia as a whole.. Looks at Uefa nations like Azerbaijan, Estonia, etc. They are very average, and many lower tier Asian Nations play them in friendlies and either win or draw, but these European lower tier nations still are competitive and do not have huge scorelines... Asia, we would.. because the lower tier nations do not have experience to play against the bigger heads of Asia. All in I think its a great idea, in time, it will become more competitve, and if and when the new revamp goes through, we will see upsets will make the qualifiers the more interesting.
Additional analysis from Edgar : http://www.football-rankings.info/2014/03/afc-announce-major-competition-changes.html
I think its a great idea.. and makes Asian qualifiers for both World Cup and Asian Cup much more interesting.
approved.. Asian Cup 2019 increase to 24 nations. depending on the number of entries, 8 groups (top 8 and 4 second best qualify for World Cup final Round qualifiers) the remaining 24 teams start qualification for remaining 16 places. Looks like 36 teams will be grouped from 47).. so 11 teams will have no proper football for 4 years. http://www.the-afc.com/en/about-afc...o-approves-expanded-afc-asian-cup-finals.html
It says: "The next best 24 teams from the preliminary qualification round (24 teams) will compete for the remaining slots in the AFC Asian Cup finals in six groups of four teams each." That means that best, not all teams (meaning = 36 is not fixed number of participants, it will be 36-47) from preliminary round (that fail to progress to WC qualifiers) will play in AC qualifiers. For example, if 42 teams apply for qualification, they will make 2 groups of 6 + 5 groups of 5, 12 progress to WCQ, next best 24 teams progress to ACQ, 6 finish their qualification journey. Each team that enter qualification will play at least 8 games. There are 30 official matchdays (15 double dates in FIFA calendar) in 2015, 2016, 2017, enough for groups of 5-6 teams in each round. BTW, my opinion is that they could have allowed 30 teams to enter ACQ, 6 groups of 5, top two progress. 42 teams would have been in action for 2-3 years.
It talks about member associations, so maybe they want to allow all MAs to enter the preliminary round.
There will be some big scorelines however, this is just the start to close the gab between top 5 Asian teams and the bottom teams. There will be more focus to develop. however, what I dont want to happen is repeats of AFC youth Championships (U16, U19) where groups are announced but then most minnow nations withdraw. As long as most (if not all) Member Associations enter, I would like to see the preliminary round to be home-away followed by WCQ and AC