Yeah - early days for CAFF Championships, especially with the extended qualifiers, most teams will just want to focus on the important games.
I highly doubt it is a tournament most likely just a few friendlies. There isnt enough time to organize a caff championship before wcq's start in june and teams will most likely want to focus on those games anyways. If the cup is this year then probably in july or august. One conflict that arises is that most of the 6 countries of the caff have cold climates in winter months so it will be difficult to organize anything in november-february. I think the south of Iran, Khuzestan, is the only central asia area that is not cold in the winter (other than Afghanistan but I dont think they will be able to host unfortunately).
I dont think this sub federation was made primarily for tournaments or matches. I had been hearing from the early and mid 2000's that Iran increasingly wanted to separate from the west asian arab footballing nations, and I think the Caff is primarily just Iran doing that and having reps in afc.
I am very confident that there will be tournaments, just as there are for every other sub-confederation. The only questions are when (I expect in the next couple of years) and if Iran and Uzbekistan will send youth teams to participate.
Totally agree - Its formed with the power of Iran. From a regional tournement perspective, the only thing that I feel this region will do is have youth setups with grassroots and interchange of coaching methods..
For me, this isn't a bad thing. They don't really need a senior competition at all. If they really really want this, then they might aswell try and pull in Kazakhstan and even Armenia and Azerbaijan. I do feel it's more just to get members on the AFC board as CAFF reps rather than WAFF reps where all CAFF nations would never get a look in.
Off course, its still a good thing, As the region is vying to improve accross the board and be a force.
Agreed. And last week, the member associations of CAFA held their first meeting in Kuwait and decided to nominate President of Iran's Federation as the Vice-President of AFC from central Asia. In addition, there would be a member (President of Uzbekistan Football Federation) in the executive committee of AFC. The latter is heading CAFA and the headquarters of CAFA is also in Tashkent. There are members from all 6 associations in the leadership positions of CAFA. The Logo, statute, regulation and the place of the headquarters are also decided. Uzbekistan might host the first competitions of CAFA, but that is not confirmed.
Good to go but I hope HQ changes in every 2 to 4 years so all countries benefit from that. Looking for more members to join possibly Kazakhstan, Uyghuristan, and possibly Iraqi Kurdistan.
Looks like the first CAFA Championship will take place in 2016. http://www.goalnepal.com/news.php?id=23372
it's very good for the future of AFGHANISTAN FOOTBALL , SAFF was never for them , CAFF will be Great challenge
This confederation is good for Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, but a setback for Uzbekistan and Iran. Still it is good to have this after so long in WAFC dealing with rather hostile atmosphere. This can be better if some strong teams like Kazakstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, Turkey or Georgia get invited occasionally to raise up the level of competition for all teams.
will i think we can not say it is a setback for IRAN and UZBEKISTAN , IRAN gain from it for having hand in AFC Discussions , and for UZBEKISTAN its good because they were not part of a formal region before . it is a great start for the future of the AFC , and we will see that ...
CAFF CENTRAL ASIAN TEAMS Teams in Draw for world cup 2018 and Asian cup 2019 IR IRAN ---- ------OMAN---------------INDIA---------------TURKMENISTAN-------GUAM UZBEKISTAN-------BAHRAIN-----------PHILIPPINES-------NORTH KOREA-----------YEMEN JAPAN-----------------SYRIA---------------AFGHANISTAN---SINGAPORE---------------CAMBODIA AUSTRALIA-----------JORDAN------------TAJIKISTAN-------KYRGYZSTAN----------BANGLADESH
Iran and Uzbekistan as expected are huge favorites to make it to the next round. Afghanistan has the best chance after them. However I feel like Jordan will be too strong for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, likewise for Oman and Turkmenistan.
I will pick Turkmenistan as the dark horse, I feel that they can pull an upset and be particularly strong at home.
I think if this was the teams in CAFF it would be great: Iran Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Azerbaijan Georgia Turkmenistan Afghanistan Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan When CAFF gets more organized they can convince Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan who are not doing well in UEFA to join AFC. It would add tremendous depth to AFC. For CAFF championship it can be 8 team tournament, with bottom 2 teams playing 2 leg play-off to get to main tournament. It can be good tournament for bigger teams to use new players and also will be good experience for less exxperienced countries to play the best teams in Asia.
So just under a year of having a newly formed federation namely CAFF, so far, nothing has come out of it, which confirms to me further that this region was only created so Iran has a way out from WAFF... No media, no creation of any type of competition.. quite poor. Atleast with SAFF, you get games every 2 years for the seniors, u23s, and youth sides.. plus club championships now too..
I agree, there might be a CAFF Tournament in 2016, but the above article is 10 months old, the source is from Nepal.. Where is CAFF? 10 months, no news from the actual federation.