VietNamNet Bridge – The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on February 14 held the draw ceremony for the first Asian U22 Football Champs 2013. Vietnam is in group G, with South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Taiwan and the Philippines.
This is a new football tournament of AFC, for young football players under 22 years old. The tournament has the participation of 40 countries.

The tournament will be held each two years. The event in 2015 will be considered as the qualifier round for the Olympic Rio 2016.

The qualifier round of Asian U22 Football Champs 2013 will take place from June 23 to July 3, 2012.

Vietnam will establish its U22 team in June 2012 to prepare for the event. Vietnam is ranked as the 6th seed of Southeast Asia.

AFC’s Managing director Windsor John who is in charge of tournaments said that the new tournament is the second significant event in Asia, at national team level. AFC hopes that national football federations to invest more in young players.

Forty teams are divided in seven groups to play in a round robin to choose the best 15 teams for the finals. The 16th team will be the U22 squad of the host country of the final round (not defined yet).

The draw results:

Group A: UAE, Iraq, Oman, India, Turkmenistan, Lebanon
Group B: Arab Saudi, Syria, Pakistan, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka
Group C: Bahrain, Iran, Tajikistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Maldives
Group D: Uzbekistan, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Nepal
Group E: Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Macau, East Timor
Group F: North Korea, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia
Group G: South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Taiwan, Philippines

S. Tung