2016 AFC U-23 Championship

2016 AFC U-23 Championship

بطولة آسيا تحت 23 سنة لكرة القدم 2016
Tournament details
Host country	Qatar
Dates	12–30 January 2016
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (1st title)
Runners-up	South Korea
Third place	Iraq
Fourth place	Qatar
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	103 (3.22 per match)
Attendance	93,639 (2,926 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ahmed Alaa (6 goals)
Best player	Shoya Nakajima
Fair play award	Japan

The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship (also known as the 2016 AFC U-23 Asian Cup) was the second edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in Qatar between 12–30 January 2016.^[1][2] A total of 16 teams compete in the tournament. The tournament was also renamed from the "AFC U-22 Championship" to the "AFC U-23 Championship".^[1]

For the first time, the AFC U-23 Championship acted as the AFC qualifiers for the Olympic football tournament, replacing the previous process of home-and-away Olympic qualifiers. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in Brazil as the AFC representatives.^[3]

Japan won the tournament with a 3–2 final win over South Korea. Both finalists and third-placed Iraq qualified for the Olympics.^[4]

Host selection

Qatar was one of the countries which came forward wishing to host the finals competition.^[5] They were selected over the other bidding nations Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran.^[1]

Qualification

The qualifiers draw was held on Thursday, 4 December 2014.^[6] A total of 43 teams were drawn into ten groups, with the ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualifying for the final tournament, together with Qatar who qualified automatically as hosts.^[7]

Qualification rounds were played between 23–31 March 2015,^[8] except for Group B which was scheduled to be held in Lahore, Pakistan, but was postponed due to the Lahore church bombings.

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[9]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
Qatar	* !Hosts	01 !1st	99 !Debut
Iraq	A !Group A winners	02 !2nd	01 !Champions (2013)
Jordan	B !Group B winners	02 !2nd	03 !Third place (2013)
Saudi Arabia	C !Group C winners	02 !2nd	02 !Runners-up (2013)
United Arab Emirates	D !Group D winners	02 !2nd	05 !Quarter-finals (2013)
Syria	E !Group E winners	02 !2nd	05 !Quarter-finals (2013)
Australia	F !Group F winners	02 !2nd	05 !Quarter-finals (2013)
North Korea	G !Group G winners	02 !2nd	06 !Group stage (2013)
South Korea	H !Group H winners	02 !2nd	04 !Fourth place (2013)
Japan	I !Group I winners	02 !2nd	05 !Quarter-finals (2013)
China PR	J !Group J winners	02 !2nd	06 !Group stage (2013)
Thailand	Z1 !1st best runners-up (Group G)	01 !1st	99 !Debut
Iran	Z2 !2nd best runners-up (Group C)	02 !2nd	06 !Group stage (2013)
Vietnam	Z3 !3rd best runners-up (Group I)	01 !1st	99 !Debut
Yemen	Z4 !4th best runners-up (Group D)	02 !2nd	06 !Group stage (2013)
Uzbekistan	Z5 !5th best runners-up (Group E)	02 !2nd	06 !Group stage (2013)

Venues

The tournament was hosted in four stadiums, all located in Doha.^[10]

Doha
Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium (Lekhwiya Stadium)	Grand Hamad Stadium (Al-Arabi Stadium)
Capacity: 12,000	Capacity: 18,000
Doha 2016 AFC U-23 Championship (Qatar)
Doha
Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium (Al-Sadd Stadium)	Suheim Bin Hamad Stadium (Qatar SC Stadium)
Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 15,000

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 12 September 2015, 12:00 AST (UTC+3), at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha, Qatar. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[10] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous edition in 2013.^[11]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Qatar (hosts; position A1)  Iraq  Saudi Arabia  Jordan	South Korea  Syria  Australia  Japan	United Arab Emirates  Iran  North Korea  Uzbekistan	China PR  Yemen  Thailand  Vietnam

Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship.

Referees

Assistant referees

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team could register a maximum of 23 players (minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers).^[12]

As the tournament was not held during the FIFA International Match Calendar, clubs were not obligated to release the players.^[13]

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advanced to the quarter-finals.

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:^[12]

1. Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
2. Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
3. Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
4. 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;
5. Goal difference in all the group matches;
6. Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
8. 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);
9. Drawing of lots.

All times were local, AST (UTC+3).^[14]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar (H)	3	3	0	0	9	4	+5	9	Knockout stage
2	Iran	3	2	0	1	6	4	+2	6
3	Syria	3	1	0	2	5	7	−2	3
4	China PR	3	0	0	3	4	9	−5	0

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	3	0	0	7	1	+6	9	Knockout stage
2	North Korea	3	0	2	1	5	6	−1	2[lower-alpha 1]
3	Saudi Arabia	3	0	2	1	5	6	−1	2[lower-alpha 1]
4	Thailand	3	0	2	1	3	7	−4	2[lower-alpha 1]

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	3	2	1	0	8	2	+6	7	Knockout stage
2	Iraq	3	2	1	0	6	3	+3	7
3	Uzbekistan	3	1	0	2	6	6	0	3
4	Yemen	3	0	0	3	1	10	−9	0

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United Arab Emirates	3	2	1	0	4	2	+2	7	Knockout stage
2	Jordan	3	1	2	0	3	1	+2	5
3	Australia	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	4
4	Vietnam	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out would be used to decide the winner if necessary.^[12]

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	22 January – Doha
	Qatar (a.e.t.)	2
					26 January – Doha
	North Korea	1
					Qatar	1
	23 January – Doha
					South Korea	3
	South Korea	1
									30 January – Doha
	Jordan	0
									South Korea	2
	22 January – Doha
									Japan	3
	Japan (a.e.t.)	3
					26 January – Doha
	Iran	0
					Japan	2
	23 January – Doha
					Iraq	1			Third Place
	United Arab Emirates	1
									29 January – Doha
	Iraq (a.e.t.)	3
									Qatar	1
									Iraq (a.e.t.)	2

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

Winners qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics.

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Third place play-off

Winner qualified for 2016 Summer Olympics.

Final

Winners

2016 AFC U-23 Championship
Japan First title

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Top Goalscorer[15]	Most Valuable Player[16]	Fair Play award[16]
Ahmed Alaa	Shoya Nakajima	Japan

Statistics

Goalscorers

6 goals

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: The-AFC.com

Tournament team rankings

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
01 !	Japan	6	6	0	0	15	4	+11	18	Champions
02 !	South Korea	6	4	1	1	14	6	+8	13	Runners-up
03 !	Iraq	6	4	1	1	12	7	+5	13	Third place
4	Qatar (H)	6	4	0	2	13	10	+3	12	Fourth place
5	United Arab Emirates	4	2	1	1	5	5	0	7	Eliminated in quarter-finals
6	Iran	4	2	0	2	6	7	−1	6
7	Jordan	4	1	2	1	3	2	+1	5
8	North Korea	4	0	2	2	6	8	−2	2
9	Australia	3	1	1	1	2	1	+1	4	Eliminated in group stage
10	Uzbekistan	3	1	0	2	6	6	0	3
11	Syria	3	1	0	2	5	7	−2	3
12	Saudi Arabia	3	0	2	1	5	6	−1	2
13	Thailand	3	0	2	1	3	7	−4	2
14	China PR	3	0	0	3	4	9	−5	0
15	Vietnam	3	0	0	3	3	8	−5	0
16	Yemen	3	0	0	3	1	10	−9	0

Qualified teams for Olympics

The following three teams from AFC qualified for the Olympic football tournament.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
Japan	01 !26 January 2016	09 !9 (1936, 1956, 1964, 1968, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
South Korea	02 !26 January 2016	09 !9 (1948, 1964, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012)
Iraq	03 !29 January 2016	04 !4 (1980, 1984, 1988, 2004)

¹ Italic indicates host for that year. Statistics include all Olympic format (current Olympic under-23 format started in 1992).

Broadcasting rights

Controversies

Qatar, Syria and Yemen each had at least two players born on 1 January 1993, the cut off date for eligibility in this tournament.^[24][25]

References

External links

• AFC U-23 Championship, the-AFC.com