EAFF East Asian Cup

http://www.eaff.com/eanews/release/2012/120105.html

The former EAFF Championship will now be called the EAFF East Asian Cup for the 2013 edition.

EAFF are trying to make the qualifying competition a bit more competitive, so there will now be an extra preliminary round rather than have all 5 teams in one group. I'm not sure how this will work exactly.

In previous editions, China, Japan and North Korea went direct to the finals, but now South Korea is ahead of China in the FIFA rankings, so China would have to play in qualifying if their ranking remains the same.

At the moment, Japan, North Korea and South Korea would go to the finals, and the other 5 teams (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands) would need to qualify. The only format I can think would work would be a 3-team preliminary round (Hong Kong, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands) followed by a 3-team qualification round (China, Taiwan, Prelim winner) or a 2-team preliminary between Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and a 4-team qualification round (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Prelim winner).

Macau and Mongolia haven't entered before. Macau has a national team, but hasn't played any internationals so far. I would be surprised if any of these 2 teams entered.

 

1st Qualifying Round results from Yona, Guam
17.07 Guam 6-0 Northern Mariana Islands
19.07 Hong Kong 11-0 Northern Mariana Islands
21.07 Guam 3-4 Hong Kong

HONG KONG advance to final qualifying round in China (with China and Taiwan). Winners of final qualifying round join Japan, North Korea and South Korea in the finals.