I know its a bit early to discuss, but the Qualifiers should be played next year..... Which teams will participate? will it be only the bottom 16-20 teams of Asia who dont get a chance to participate in the Asian cup? or will AFC again invite stronger nations to partipate (eg- North Korea,)
If, going on previous editions, then top 3 from the previous event will gain diect entry to the finals. But, I expect AFC will tell us something after Asian Cup or at least after the first rounds of the World Cup qualifiers wich should tell the AFC whom are the lowest ranked teams in Asia.
thats tue, after the world cup we will know. But what I find interesting is that, this cup should only be for the bottom nations, the rest of the nations should participate as normal in the Asian Cup (ie Top 30 nations) the bottom 15 or so should be involved in the Afc Challenge Cup.... which I beleive should not include Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, North Korea, India etc. They should all be involved in the Asian Cup Qualifiers. The following i think should be involved only in the Challenge Cup.. Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia Chinese Taipei Guam Kyrgyzstan Laos Macau Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Palestine Philippines Sri Lanka Timor-Leste Having said that, the format should scrap the qualifying games, and get all the nations into groups, so these nations can get as much games under there belt.
Looking at your list of nations, i totally agree. Your also right about scrapping the qualifying stage - just like in 2006. But which developing nation could host 16 nations in a finals tournament?
Pakistan fail to have a fully functioning domestic league at time's, so how to organise a international event?
Pakistan dont seem to have a proper domestic league and have 'problems' on and off, so they wont be able to host a event like that. The only nation tht comes to my mind in that list is Bangladesh, they currently have a profressional domestic league setup and have the stadiums. including a qualifying section to these games gives far less competitive games to these lessor nations, so how on earth can AFC expect there game to improve where they only get 2 games at WC Qual (every 4 years), 3 games at Challenge cup qual (every 2 years) and 3 games at a regional comp (every 2 years) disgraceful man
I think we are all in agreement that the tournament should feature 16 teams in four groups of 4 just like 2006. More games and more competition, the qualifying was a joke last time around... Teams lost out on qualification based on disciplinary records and Goals Scored. As for hosts... What about Taiwan? They definitely have the infrastructure.
exactly right. I sometimes feel the AFC just like to push the lower teams down even lower. Taiwan is also a good option especially India hosted then Sri Lanka so a change in region would be nice to this Cup.
Kuala Lumpur: The AFC President’s Cup and Challenge Cup Organising Committee on Monday decided not to give direct entries to the top three finishers of the AFC Challenge Cup 2010 in its 2012 edition. Sixteen teams will be divided into four groups in the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 and the top-two teams from each group will vie for the honours in the eight-team Finals at a centralised venue. The decision, however, will have to be endorsed by the AFC Competitions Committee and ratified by the AFC Executive Committee in their next meetings in July. http://www.the-afc.com/en/inside-af...entry-for-top-three-to-afc-challenge-cup-2012
No place for India? Don't think so. AFC went from this list in 2008: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Brunei DS, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan and Timor Leste. On top of that, any member of the AFC may enter the competition. Source: AFC Challenge Cup 2008 Qualification Guidelines (pdf file) - page 16. to this fine piece of fair play in 2010: a) The AFC shall determine the Member Associations who are eligible for the Competition. b) All decisions by the AFC Competitions Committee regarding entries are final and not subject to appeal. Source: Regulations AFC Challenge Cup 2010 (Qualifiers) (pdf file) - page 27.[/i] These are the "emerging" nations: Afghanistan Bhutan Brunei Cambodia Chinese Taipei Guam Kyrgyzstan Laos Macau Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Palestine Philippines Sri Lanka Tajikistan Timor-Leste Other participants: Bangladesh India Myanmar Korea DPR Turkmenistan Maldives
Surely North Korea will not be able to participate this time around? A World Cup participant can hardly be classified as "emerging"
Indian clubs have play-off berth in ACL and every year at least 1 club have been able to reach knock-out round of AFC Cup.Since India plays friendlies once in a blue moon they are ranked so low and are part of AFC Challenge Cup Its time they play full qualifiers with bigger Asian nations
AFC want India in the Asian Cup in order to raise interest. If they go back to playing regular qualifiers... it will be some time before you reach a final tournament againt.
India will be part of the AFC Challenge cup at-least for 2012. Even though there is huge push from AFC for India to excel, I do believe if they try to go through Asian Cup Qualifiers they wont be able to qualify for the Asian Cup again.
AFC have stated that they will have 4 groups of 4 for the Challenge Cup. So they have 16 countries in mind. I assume some countries that can play won't, such as Laos. So the AFC do need to keep their options open. They have committed themselves to 16, which is probably wrong, they should have invited nations to enter first and gone from there. So unlike previous editions, 16 is the limit, where as before, they have put all emerging nations in the pot and then asked for 'other members' to apply
It seems there are 22 eligible teams. AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Possible 22 (Brunei is suspended): Afghanistan Bhutan Cambodia Chinese Taipei Guam Kyrgyzstan Laos Macau Mongolia Nepal Pakistan Palestine Philippines Sri Lanka Tajikistan Timor-Leste Bangladesh India Myanmar Korea DPR Turkmenistan Maldives
Like all the "formats" noted today - this looks like a rehash of previous releases. The 2014 WC qualifying list looks like an ambit claim rather than an actual announcement. This just looks like copy-paste from a few weeks ago. Maybe someone in the office is bored - or out of control. J
AFC havn't to my knowledge told anyone which nations will be playing. That list you see is what people are guessing at.