2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification

2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	Bangladesh (Group A); Saudi Arabia (Group B); Palestine (Group C); Qatar (Group D); Iran (Group E); Tajikistan (Group F); Myanmar (Group G); Thailand (Group H); China (Group I); Laos (Group J)
Dates	28 September – 6 October 2015
Teams	43 (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	68
Goals scored	282 (4.15 per match)
Attendance	102,946 (1,514 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Majid Lafi Hamad Al-Mehairi (6 goals)

The 2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification decided the participating teams of the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship. The tournament is the 39th edition of the AFC U-19 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia.

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Bahrain who qualified automatically as hosts but also competed in the qualifying stage.[1]

Same as previous editions, the tournament acts as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top four teams of the final tournament will qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea as the AFC representatives, besides South Korea who qualified automatically as hosts. If South Korea are among the top four teams, the fifth-placed team (i.e., the losing quarter-finalist with the best record in the tournament) will also qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Draw

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 5 June 2015 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur.[2] A total of 43 teams entered the qualifying stage and were drawn into ten groups.

West Zone, with 25 entrants from Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia, had one group of five teams and five groups of four teams.
East Zone, with 18 entrants from ASEAN and East Asia, had two groups of five teams and two groups of four teams.

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous season in 2014.

	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5
West Zone (Groups A–F)	Iran Iraq Qatar United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Yemen	Bahrain Bangladesh Kuwait Oman Palestine Saudi Arabia	India Jordan Lebanon Maldives Pakistan Turkmenistan	Afghanistan Kyrgyzstan Nepal Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan	Bhutan
East Zone (Groups G–J)	Japan Myanmar North Korea Thailand	Australia China PR South Korea Vietnam	Hong Kong Malaysia Philippines Singapore	Brunei Chinese Taipei Laos Macau	Northern Mariana¹ Timor-Leste

Did not enter
West Zone	None
East Zone	Cambodia Guam Indonesia (suspended by FIFA)[3] Mongolia

Note:: ¹ Non-FIFA member, ineligible for U-20 World Cup.

Player eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 1997 are eligible to compete in the tournament.[4]

Format

In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up from all groups qualify for the final tournament. If Bahrain are one of the group winners or best runners-up, the sixth-best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.[1]

Tiebreakers

The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[4]

Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
If, after applying criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
Goal difference in all the group matches;
Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches (1 point for a single yellow card, 3 points for a red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for a direct red card, 4 points for a yellow card followed by a direct red card);
Drawing of lots.

Groups

The matches are played between 28 September – 6 October 2015 for Groups G and H (five-team groups); 2–6 October 2015 for all other groups (four-team groups).[5]

Key to colours in group tables
Group winners and best five runners-up, and Bahrain as hosts, qualify for the finals.
Withdrawn

Group A

All matches were held in Bangladesh.
Times listed are UTC+6.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uzbekistan	3	3	0	0	14	0	+14	9	Final tournament
2	Bangladesh (H)	3	1	1	1	3	5	−2	4
3	Sri Lanka	3	1	0	2	2	5	−3	3
4	Bhutan	3	0	1	2	1	10	−9	1
5	Pakistan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Host.

2 October 2015

15:00

Uzbekistan	7–0	Bhutan
Gofurov 42' Mukhitdinov 45' (pen.) Kodirkulov 55' Abdixolikov 70', 80' Davlatjonov 88' Tukhtasinov 90+3'	Report

Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka

Attendance: 300

Referee: Marai Al-Awaji (Saudi Arabia)

2 October 2015