When I hear about "revamp" of anything having to do with the AFC, I must say I think that is a good start! But I am not sure I like any of these changes. My own view is that 16 nations participating in the Asian Cup was enough. I wouldn't mind combining the preliminary qualifying rounds for the Asian Cup and the World Cup to weed out the absolute minnows, but I am not in favor of most of these changes. I also didn't like the idea of exempting the top 3 teams in the last Asian Cup from qualifying for this one. None of these innovations were all that useful. Some of them were down right hurtful and stupid. The main focus of the AFC, in my opinion, should be to make sure Asian football competitions (club and country) progress and reaches it potential in the larger AFC countries who have a large potential fan base, some football tradition, and other ingredients to make football in Asia financially lucrative and therefore, in the longer run, competitive internationally. Two countries that I think the AFC should focus on the most besides Japan and South Korea, are China and Iran. Iran is by far the largest W. Asian side and it has the football tradition, GDP, and fan base that is required to make an impact internationally. While political issues might hamper some of its progress, the best thing the AFC can do is to start granting Iran the right to host more AFC competitions. The 2019 Asian Cup being awarded to Iran would be a good start, but there are numerous other competitions that Iran should be hosting as well. As for China, they too should get as many tournaments to host as possible. The fan base that China have, if properly cultivated and tuned into the game in Asia, can make the AFC financially as lucrative as UEFA! And if that happens, the rest will work itself out in due course.
The quality of this tournament is already horrendous. Not to mention they keep marketing it to audiences that truly don't care. If saddens me that the African cup of nations which is held every 2 years gets better coverage, exposure and respect even though the quality of football isn't very high either.
I will respectfully disagree with you. No nation has the right to receive extra benefits from AFC merely because of their size or spending power. Fans of the so-called Asian footballing "superpowers" will never get their heads around the fact that us minnows are just as passionate about our football as you are with yours. I for one am glad that a more even qualification format has been proposed (yes it's still not perfect, but loads better than the current one). While aristocrats merely want to "weed us out", I think it will be fun to watch the top players strutting about on a sodden, waterlogged pitch in Cambodia, or up in the mountains in Nepal. Anyone recall the hissy fit Jordan threw during the qualifiers?
I think its important to encourage all nations to play qualifiers. Combining the qualifying process with the World Cup qualifiers may help do this. I'm not convinced that there is enough depth yet to have a 24 team tournament. I think many in Europe will be surprised at the drop in group play quality when they go to 24 teams. It not only dilutes the quality with more teams of lesser ability qualifying, by having 3rd placed teams make the knock out stages it also encorages defensive play amongst those that think they are marginal teams. Maybe the AFC should break the mould by having a 24 team tournament where only the best two 2nd placed teams make the knockout stages and go straight from groups to quarter finals.
I think it's great idea for more meaningful matches for lower tier nations. Most will be surprised at their quality, some of these lower nations aren't as bad as they seem, and with more exposure and meaningful matches against better quality, they will develop. A lot of passion of football is all over Asia.
That is not my priority frankly. My priority is raise the AFC to something close to the level of the top confederations in football. The AFC has the population (and then some) and the resources (financial and otherwise). Laying the ground work to make football in Asia lucrative and competitive, the rest will work itself out even for the smaller sides. The AFC needs to concentrate on making sure China and Iran (for different reasons) are on the right path and get to host tournaments in the continent more regularly. It needs to make sure the game develops even further in Japan and S.Korea. It also needs to help out India join the top 10 in the AFC. None of these, though, by diluting the quality of its competition but rather through other mechanisms like make sure Iran hosts more games in Asia, China hosts the World Cup (instead of Qatar!), the Club World Cup as well, and that India is also pushed to invest more and given more attention to the game and granted hosting privileges more often as well.
The preliminary rounds of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers threw in a few surprising results especially from the SAFF nations, who are generally regarded as the weakest in AFC: Bangladesh 2-0 Lebanon India 2-2 UAE Nepal 1-1 Jordan Maldives 0-1 Iran SAFF nations tend to do decently at home and horrendously away and this, I believe, is solely down to the fact that these nations are not used to travelling and playing at far-flung (if you can call it that) places. Simply put, playing away from home in high-pressure environments is not in their footballing DNA. Perhaps with a little bit of practice the gap will decrease, meaning the competitiveness within the confederation will increase and this could only be a good thing for AFC as a whole.
Actually the other confederations in the world give the minor teams in their fed much more opportunity and exposure than AFC does. That is why even in Europe you get to see the smaller teams play the bigger teams in group play which helps them improve, even though the score might be lopsided on occasion. This is also true for the other confeds and esp. in the CONCACAF, where the Caribbean countries hold the top positions in their organization. It is attitudes like some of the members here, who would rather ignore the weaker members of the AFC, that makes it hard for the smaller teams to improve. As for popularity and number of fans, SEA has a potential 600 million + plus passionate football fans to help build the sport. That is why European clubs hold games there on a regular basis as they consider it more lucrative, certainly more often than in some of the supposedly stronger regions in the AFC. In this new format, more of these smaller and middle ranked countries in SEA, will get a chance to participate in the Asian Cup and other AFC tournaments. Considering that their economies are among the fastest growing in Asia and the passion that their fans have for the sport, it would be foolish for the AFC to ignore their potential. The AFC is run for the benefit of all its members and not just for the elite few.
Will the seeding be based on the club crtieria the AFC set up.... (in line with the AFC Club competitions). I am hoping all 46 nations enter and we have 8 groups of 5 and 6. All nations should realise that its not the World Cup they are trying to qualify, but also the Asia Cup. Looks like a interesting format. I have put it as (based on 46 nations) 8 groups 2 groups of 5 6 groups of 6 World Cup Final Round: 1st place team + 4 2nd placed teams (of 8) = 12 Asian Cup Qualifying 4 2nd placed teams (of 8) + 8 3rd place teams + 8 4th place teams + 4 5th place teams (of 8) 4 5th placed teams and 6th placed teams are knocked out. This will mean that to qualify for the final world cup round, goal difference will play a major factor, and if a mid-tier team is lucky to have 2 minnow's in there group, they have a good chance of getting that 2nd best place spot. I have a feeling the AFC would want the likes of Cambodia, Brunei, Bhutan to not participate..
4 vs 4 play off round for the 8 runner-ups & 8 fifth-placed teams like UEFA qualifications will be more fair and excited than calculating their group results directly!
very good point. AFC needs to incorporate play off games to get the best 4 runners up to qualify for final round of world cup, if it wants to ensure the best teams qualify for the final round.