Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) new national team competition, the AFC Solidarity Cup, was launched on Thursday at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur. The launch culminated in the draw for the first edition of the competition, which will be played in Malaysia between November 2 and November 15, 2016. AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said: “The AFC Solidarity Cup is an exciting initiative to develop national team football in Asia. The AFC is excited about this new tournament - the AFC Solidarity Cup - as we look to deliver the objective of our Vision and Mission which is to make Asian teams stronger on the global stage.” The new competition brings together aspiring AFC Member Associations, giving teams the opportunity to play competitive international matches when they are not participating in FIFA or AFC national team competitions. The AFC Solidarity Cup is a unique competition where the focus is on development through increased opportunities to compete at the international level, but also provides targeted education and training, such as coaching, referees and technical analysis. There will also be event management training offered to MAs who hold aspirations to host international tournaments in the future. The AFC Solidarity Cup logo, also launched at the draw, reflects the key values of the competition: unity, strength, team spirit, solidarity and energy. http://www.the-afc.com/afc-solidari...-team-competition-afc-solidarity-cup-launched
Kuala Lumpur: The official draw for the inaugural edition of the AFC Solidarity Cup took place on Thursday at AFC House in the Malaysian capital. A total of eight or nine teams will participate in the AFC Solidarity Cup Malaysia 2016 – six of them being Brunei Darussalam, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – who were all eliminated from the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 AFC Asian Cup Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1. Two or three teams – Laos or the Maldives, Chinese Taipei or Timor-Leste and Bangladesh – who will be eliminated from the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2, will also participate. These will be decided after the completion of Play-off 2 on October 11. The pairings for the currently ongoing 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2 are: Pairing 1: Maldives v Laos - Pairing 2: Bangladesh v Bhutan - Pairing 3: Timor-Leste v Chinese Taipei However, if Bhutan are the losing team in the pairing above, only losers from Pairings 1 and 3 will take part in the AFC Solidarity Cup, as Bhutan have not expressed interest to participate. OPTION 1: EIGHT PARTICIPATING TEAMS If Bhutan are the losing team in Pairing 2, there will be eight teams taking part – six from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 and two from the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2. There will be two centralised groups of four teams and the winner and runner-up (total four teams) will advance to the semi-finals. The two winners in the semi-finals will battle it out in the final match. OPTION 2: NINE PARTICIPATING TEAMS If Bhutan are not the losing team in Pairing 2, three teams from the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2 and six from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 will form the competition. The teams will be drawn into two groups (of four and five teams), and the two group winners will play in the final. DRAW SEEDINGS Teams from Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 were seeded based on the last FIFA Rankings released on August 11 and will be drawn from the following pots: Pot 1: Nepal (seeded 1st), Sri Lanka (seeded 2nd) - Pot 2: Pakistan (seeded 3rd), Macau (seeded 4th) - Pot 3: Brunei Darussalam (seeded 5th), Mongolia (seeded 6th) There will be no rankings for the teams from the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Playoff 2 and they will be seeded into a single pot, Pot 4. THE DRAW Group A: Teams Nepal, Pakistan, Brunei Darussalam, Timor-Leste / Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh / Bhutan Group B: Teams Sri Lanka, Macau, Mongolia, Maldives / Laos The new competition will kick off on November 2 with the final set to take place on November 15.
How humiliating must it be to play in this tournament? At least with the AFC Challenge Cup, teams had to play and actually win qualifying matches to be considered eligible to play in it. I never thought I would root for Maldives to not qualify for a tournament, but there we go!
I was thinking which team I would cheer and the first name came to my mind was "Maldives". You guys came a long but progressive way until here. From Iran 17-0 Maldives to South Korea 0-0 Maldives and Iran 1-0 Maldives. That much dedication and passion for football in remarkable.
That may be so, but we've regressed again quite badly since hitting our peak in 2008. This is mostly due to some braindead decision making by politicians running our FA, like cancelling all youth tournaments and for no reason. This resulted in a talent vacuum, with no significantly talented youngsters coming through between that period of 2006 and 2014. Hopefully with the resumption of youth development programs 2 years ago and a comprehensive framework to be laid into place, things will turn around once again.
I know there will be big margins, but AFC just needs to throw all teams who want to be involved in qualification to be pitted against in each other.. throw all 46 teams in.
Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) president Kazi Salahuddin is apparently not interested to send the national team to the inaugural AFC Solidarity Cup, which is scheduled to be held from November 2 to 15 in Malaysia. Bangladesh will only be eligible to play in this lowest-tier tournament of Asia if they fail to beat Bhutan in the Asian Cup Play-Off Qualifiers, the second leg of which is scheduled for October 10 in Thimphu. This tournament is expected to feature teams which will fail to progress to the final round of the 24-team Asian Cup Qualifiers, with six teams already decided and the remaining three teams to be decided next week after the play-offs. http://www.thedailystar.net/sports/football/salahuddin-against-sending-team-1293790
I already said it before, when talks about this tournament appeared in public. It's embarrassing. You are eliminated in two matches in 4-5 days and next official game you play is consolation tournament consisted of worst teams in the continent 18 months later. Unbeliveable gap. What happens next - after that 15 freakin days tournament is played - no one knows. Most probably you will wait 2.5 years for next (2-game) shot at WC. Disgusting. AFC is doing great thing lately (expanding club competitions, league licensing, bigger prize-money, joint qualifications), but the level of their care for worst minnows and their national teams is disgraceful. I still don't get why they didn't include all 46 teams in first group stage (could've been 8x5+1x6) and why all eliminated teams from WCQ didn't get another shot at AC qualification.
Taiwan will participate in the qualification round of EAFF Championship in Hong Kong on Nov 6-12. I don't think they will join the Solidarity Cup even if they are unable to qualify to ACQ group stage tonight.
No interest in this 'losers Cup' Bangladesh have qualified for this cup but have called out that they wont participate if they lose to Bhutan. Pakistan have already withdrawn, and now Taiwan are not interested if they lose there play-off. AFC need to realise that a revamp of all 46 teams into qualification is the way forward.
The whole purpose of joint WC 2018 and AC 2019 qualification round was to get rid of extra matches. I don't think they revert back to the old way. It might look bad for minnows but it is advantageous for the rest.
If you are participating in this tournament... Then admit that you suck (if you can't beat Bhutan you have problems) and start working towards improving. The current system is a lot better than what we had for the last two editions (knockout rounds to cull the herd to 25 in the space of one month and half of Asia locked out of Asian Cup qualifying).
Match schedule http://the-anfa.com/images/downloads/20161014_solidarity_cup_2016_match_schedule_updated.pdf
Brunei 4-0 Timor-Leste http://www.the-afc.com/afc-solidarity-cup-2016/afc-solidarity-cup-brunei-darussalam-4-0-timor-leste
Macau 2:1 Mongolia http://www.the-afc.com/afc-solidarity-cup-2016/afc-solidarity-cup-macau-2-1-mongolia Laos 2:1 Sri Lanka http://www.the-afc.com/afc-solidarity-cup-2016/afc-solidarity-cup-sri-lanka-1-2-laos
Laos-Macao 1-4. This makes for a 5th straight match (and outside of this streak around 15th this year) Laos have fixed after fixing the matches vs Sri Lanka, Brunei, Timor Leste and Cambodia. This must be a world record, all of those matches are inside one month, it is ********ing hilarious AFC don't do anything even if they have all the evidence they could possibly have. Simply give all Laos players and coaches that same 12 month ban that was handed to N. Korea U16 gk and if new players start fixing ban them until there is a clean Laos.
What evidence do you have that the matches are fixed ? Laos won against Sri Lanka, Brunei and Timor-Leste.
It is an undeniable fact and it is not my job to present the evidence. It doesn't have anything to do with Laos having won the match. If a team does what Laos does once, with simultaneous strange stuff happening on pitch and in live odds there is less than a 1% chance that team is innocent and it was just a coincidence. During past years these same Laos players have done it so many times it the probability for Laos to be innocent is something like 0.01^30. This estimation may be inaccurate or exaggerated but replace it with 0.15^15 it doesn't really matter, the fact is they fixed these matches. AFC have access to archived live odds from these matches, AFC have access to archived videos from these matches and if they run them at the same time comparing them to each other I assure you the probability of Laos being innocent is very very small. Whatever proof there was against DPRK U16 gk there is a zillion time more proof against Laos.
The Deputy Chairman of the AFC Disciplinary Committee has provisionally suspended four (4) Laos players for sixty (60) days for various violations of the AFC Disciplinary Code and AFC Code of Ethics related to suspected match manipulation. The players were registered at the AFC Solidarity Cup 2016 and participated in the first match of the competition. As their ongoing participation provided a direct threat to the integrity of the competition, the Deputy Chairman acted accordingly on Saturday. The players are: Saynakhonevieng Phommapanya Chintana Souksavath Moukda Souksavath Phatthana Syvilay The provisional suspensions relate not only to the AFC Solidarity Cup but also to suspected manipulation of multiple matches committed by the representative teams of Laos since 2010. The investigation (which is in conjunction with the FIFA Integrity Unit and Sportradar) is ongoing and not limited to those players provisionally suspended. Any person with information relating to match manipulation in Asian football is strongly encouraged to notify the AFC via integrity@the-AFC.com. The AFC takes a zero tolerance approach to match manipulation as stated as a core pillar of the AFC Vision and Mission launched in January 2016. http://the-afc.com/media-releases/a...r-laos-players-for-alleged-match-manipulation
Mongolia 2-0 Sri Lanka http://the-afc.com/afc-solidarity-cup-2016/afc-solidarity-cup-mongolia-2-0-sri-lanka
Hilarious competition. 158 fans per game. Hilarious. But also sad at same time. Why wasn't it hosted by one of competing teams?