The draw is just for round one but it still seems pretty early to me. Some of the countries in round one will be involved in World Cup qualifiers next year. I would have preferred to see the World Cup qualifiers out of the way first (at least the next round of them).
I know,that there is round 1 first,that is why i named my thread 2009-2011!And there are enough threads about wc qualifiers!
http://www.the-afc.com/eng/articles/viewArticle.jsp_164921586.html Well, here's the AFC changing their minds again... Basiclly, the seedings have been slightly altered, and the number of teams have been reduced from 27 to 24. Three teams (DPR Korea, Turkmenistan, and Myanmar) have being taken out of Asian Cup 2011 qualifiers to compete in the 2008 Challenge Cup instead. The seedings are now: 1. Iraq; 2. Saudi Arabia; 3. Korea Rep.; 4. Japan; 5. Australia; 6. IR Iran; 7. Uzbekistan; 8. Vietnam; 9. China PR; 10. Thailand; 11. Indonesia; 12. UAE; 13. Bahrain; 14. Oman; 15. Malaysia; 16. Jordan; 17. Syria; 18. Hong Kong; 19. Yemen; 20. Kuwait; 21. Singapore; 22. India; 23. Lebanon; 24. Maldives Of course Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Korea Republic are automaticlly in the next Asian Cup 2011. The draw for Round One to determine which team (Lebanon or Maldives) play home first will be conducted at AFC House on January 7, 2008. The Lebanon-Maldives winner will join teams 4-22 in five groups of 4 teams. The top 2 in each group qualify for AC 2011. VN
They make the smart & logic move Looking at the teams now in ACQ, they shld all be there but Maldives wld be unhappy one as they shld be in Challenge Cup instead of NK or Turkmenistan By sending NK or Turkmenistan into Challenge Cup, they have high chance of being champions
I agree with you guys about Turkmenistan and North Korea I would have thought the AFC might have looked at the first round results of the World Cup qualifiers and from viewing them, decide to pair all first round losers (and second round losers) in the same pot - all for Asian Challenge cup, therefore adding Vietnam, Malaysia, Yemen, Indonesia into what i would call i group of nations similiar to each other. Instead, what we seem to be getting is, a few nations in a top tier that frankly really don't stand a chance of progressing, such as Yemen and Maldives, therefore really should be placed with teams within their own remit. And then we seem to have nations such as North Korea and Turkmenistan who seem to be getting a big favour from the AFC and being put into a tournement of which they have two attempts to win to qualify for the Asian Cup. Personally, i'm thinking the AFC moved North Korea and Turkmenistan into the Challenge Cup because they know that if they didn't then someone such as Sri Lanka could get a ticket to the Asian Cup in Qatar, and quite frankly get thumped, therefore having an easy ride for North Korea will help them qualify and have the AFC pleased as North Korea, won't get thumped in Asian Cup but will be quite competitive. Another way at looking at it, its not bad to throw a few decent nations into the lowest tiered cup tournement, as it might help develop these nations, such as Bhutan, Guam rather than them playign each other all the time and not learning anything or moving on in football terms to better things