2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup

2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup
ฟุตบอลชิงแชมป์เอเชีย รุ่นอายุไม่เกิน 17 ปี 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Thailand
Dates	15 June – 2 July
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	4 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Japan (4th title)
Runners-up	South Korea
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	99 (3.19 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Gaku Nawata; (5 goals)
Best player(s)	Gaku Nawata
Best goalkeeper	Wataru Goto
Fair play award	Japan

The 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup was the 19th edition of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC U-16 Championship and AFC U-17 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-17 national teams of Asia. This edition was the first since 2006 to be played as an under-17 tournament, as the AFC proposed to switch the tournament from under-16 to under-17 starting from 2023.[1] Moreover, the tournament was also rebranded from the "AFC U-16 Championship" to the "AFC U-17 Asian Cup".[2]

On 25 January 2021, the AFC announced that Bahrain would retain hosting rights for the 2023 edition after the cancellation of the 2020 AFC U-16 Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3][4] However, Bahrain decided to withdraw the rights to host the competition on 16 June 2022, requiring a new host to be chosen at a later date.[5] On 23 December 2022, Thailand were chosen to host the tournament by the AFC Executive Committee.[6]

A total of 16 teams played in the tournament. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as the AFC representatives besides Indonesia who qualified automatically as the new host.

Japan were the title holders, having won the title in 2018, and managed to defend their title.

Qualification

Qualification matches were played between 1–9 October 2022.[7]

Qualified teams

A total of 16 teams including hosts qualified for the final tournament. Bahrain, Indonesia, Oman, United Arab Emirates and North Korea (the latter of which did not enter qualifying) all missed out on this edition after initially qualifying for the previous edition. Furthermore, Afghanistan, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam all qualified for this edition after initially missing out.

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
Japan	Group A winners	16th	Champions (1994, 2006, 2018)
Malaysia	Group B winners	6th	Quarter-finals (2014)
Qatar	Group C winners	11th	Champions (1990)
Saudi Arabia	Group D winners	11th	Champions (1985, 1988)
Yemen	Group E winners	6th	Runners-up (2002)
Vietnam	Group F winners	8th	Fourth place (2000)
Australia	Group G winners	7th	Semi-finals (2010, 2014, 2018)
Tajikistan	Group H winners	4th	Runners-up (2018)
Iran	Group I winners	12th	Champions (2008)
Uzbekistan	Group J winners	10th	Champions (2012)
South Korea	Best runners-up	15th	Champions (1986, 2002)
China	2nd best runners-up	15th	Champions (1992, 2004)
Afghanistan	3rd best runners-up	2nd	Group stage (2018)
India	4th best runners-up	9th	Quarter-finals (2002, 2018)
Thailand	5th best runners-up and hosts	12th	Champions (1998)
Laos	6th best runners-up	3rd	Group stage (2004, 2012)

Venues

The competition was played in four venues across three cities/provinces.

Bangkok	Bangkok Chonburi Pathum Thani	Pathum Thani
Rajamangala Stadium		Pathum Thani Stadium
Capacity: 51,552		Capacity: 10,114

Pathum Thani		Chonburi
Thammasat Stadium		Chonburi Stadium
Capacity: 25,000		Capacity: 8,680

Match officials

Referees

Shen Yinhao (†)
Thoriq Alkatiri
Pranjal Banerjee
Payam Heidari
Ahmed Al-Ali (†)
Ali Reda (†)
Omar Al-Yaqoubi
Kim Jong-hyeok (†)
Nasrullo Kabirov
Mongkolchai Pechsri
Ahmed Eisa Darwish (†)
Rustam Lutfullin (†)

Assistant referees

Saleh Janahi
Mohammed Manir Dhali
Zhang Cheng
Sulchan Nurhadi
Arman Assadi
Ahmed Al-Baghdadi
Ayman Obeidat
Ismailzhan Talipzhanov
Hamed Al-Ghafri
Park Kyun-yong
Omar Al-Jamal
Fadi Mahmoud
Akmal Buriev
Pattarapong Kijsathit
Jasem Al-Ali
Alisher Usmanov

(†): working as both referee and assistant referee.

Draw

The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw. The draw took place and the match schedule was confirmed on 30 March 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand.[8]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
Thailand (H) Japan Tajikistan South Korea	Australia India Iran Yemen	Malaysia Vietnam Afghanistan Saudi Arabia	China Uzbekistan Qatar Laos

Squads

Players born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2008 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team should register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.[9]

Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

Tiebreakers

Teams are to be ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:[9]

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
Drawing of lots.

All match times are in local time, ICT (UTC+7).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Thailand (H)	3	3	0	6	1	+5	9	Knockout stage
2	Yemen	3	2	1	6	2	+4	6	Knockout stage
3	Malaysia	3	1	2	2	8	−6	3
4	Laos	3	0	3	3	6	−3	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts

15 June 2023

17:00

Yemen	4–0	Malaysia
Al Khader 21' Abbas 31' Al Turaiqi 48' (pen.) Adib 88' (o.g.)	Report

Thammasat Stadium, Pathum Thani

Attendance: 129

Referee: Payam Heidari (Iran)

15 June 2023