2020 AFC U-23 Championship

The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth 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. A total of 16 teams competed in the tournament. It took place between 8–26 January 2020 in Thailand.

The tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the 2020 Summer Olympics men’s football tournament. The top three teams of the tournament would qualify for the Olympics in Japan as the AFC representatives. As Japan had already qualified as the hosts, had they reached the semi-finals, the other semi-finalists were guaranteed qualification even before the phase would have commenced.

Uzbekistan were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the semi-finals. South Korea became the fourth different country to win the tournament, beating Saudi Arabia in the final, while Australia defeated Uzbekistan in the third place game 1–0.

Host selection

Several nations expressed interest to host the tournament, including Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand were selected as host of the competition at an AFC Competition Committee’s meeting in Tokyo in August 2018.

Qualification

The qualifiers were held from 18 to 26 March 2019, during the FIFA International Match Calendar.

Qualified teams

Thirteen of the sixteen teams (including hosts Thailand) that qualified for 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualified again for the 2020 final tournament. The 2013 champions Iraq, 2016 champions Japan, 2018 champions Uzbekistan all qualified for the 2020 final tournament. The teams: Iraq, Japan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, South Korea, China PR, Australia qualified for all editions of AFC U-23 Championship till 2020.

Iran, United Arab Emirates come back after missing out in 2018, with Bahrain making their debut at the tournament finals.

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
Thailand	Hosts	3rd	Group stage (2016, 2018)
Qatar	Group A winners	3rd	Third place (2018)
Bahrain	Group B winners	1st	Debut
Iraq	Group C winners	4th	Champions (2013)
United Arab Emirates	Group D winners	3rd	Quarter-finals (2013, 2016)
Jordan	Group E winners	4th	Third place (2013)
Uzbekistan	Group F winners	4th	Champions (2018)
North Korea	Group G winners	4th	Quarter-finals (2016)
South Korea	Group H winners	4th	Runners-up (2016)
Japan	Group I winners	4th	Champions (2016)
China PR	Group J winners	4th	Group stage (2013, 2016, 2018)
Vietnam	Group K winners	3rd	Runners-up (2018)
Australia	Group H runners-up	4th	Quarter-finals (2013)
Iran	Group C runners-up	3rd	Quarter-finals (2016)
Syria	Group E runners-up	4th	Quarter-finals (2013)
Saudi Arabia	Group D runners-up	4th	Runners-up (2013)

Venues

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

 

Bangkok	Bangkok Buriram Songkhla Pathum Thani	Buriram
Rajamangala Stadium		Buriram Stadium
Capacity: 49,722		Capacity: 32,600
Songkhla		Pathum Thani
Tinsulanon Stadium		Thammasat Stadium
Capacity: 45,000		Capacity: 25,000

 

Draw

The draw of the final tournament was held on 26 September 2019, 15:00 ICT (UTC+7), at the Swissotel Bangkok Ratchada in Bangkok. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.

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

Match officials

On 3 January 2020, the AFC announced the list of referees chosen for the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship. 34 referees, 26 assistant referees and 2 support assistant referees were appointed for the tournament. Video assistant referees will be used in this tournament.

Referees

Assistant referees

Support assistant referees

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 1997 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team had to register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must have been goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 24.1 and 24.2).

Group stage

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

Tiebreakers

Teams are 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 tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. 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;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
8. 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);
9. Drawing of lots.

All times are local, ICT (UTC+7).

Schedule

Matchday	Dates	Matches
Matchday 1	8–10 January 2020	1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	11–13 January 2020	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	14–16 January 2020	1 v 2, 3 v 4

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5	Knockout stage
2	Thailand (H)	3	1	1	1	7	3	+4	4
3	Iraq	3	0	3	0	4	4	0	3
4	Bahrain	3	0	2	1	3	8	−5	2

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Saudi Arabia	3	2	1	0	3	1	+2	7	Knockout stage
2	Syria	3	1	1	1	4	4	0	4
3	Qatar	3	0	3	0	3	3	0	3
4	Japan	3	0	1	2	3	5	−2	1

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	3	3	0	0	5	2	+3	9	Knockout stage
2	Uzbekistan	3	1	1	1	4	3	+1	4
3	Iran	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	China PR	3	0	0	3	0	4	−4	0

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Group D

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

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Articles 12.1 and 12.2).

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	18 January – Bangkok
	Australia (a.e.t.)	1
					22 January – Rangsit
	Syria	0
					Australia	0
	19 January – Rangsit
					South Korea	2
	South Korea	2
									26 January – Bangkok
	Jordan	1
									South Korea (a.e.t.)	1
	18 January – Rangsit
									Saudi Arabia	0
	Saudi Arabia	1
					22 January – Bangkok
	Thailand	0
					Saudi Arabia	1
	19 January – Bangkok
					Uzbekistan	0			Third place match
	United Arab Emirates	1
									25 January – Bangkok
	Uzbekistan	5
									Australia	1
									Uzbekistan	0

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

The winners qualified for 2020 Summer Olympics.

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Third place match

The winner qualified for 2020 Summer Olympics.

Final

Winners

2020 AFC U-23 Championship
South Korea First title

Awards

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

Top scorer	Most Valuable Player	Best Goalkeeper	Fair Play award
Jaroensak Wonggorn	Won Du-jae	Song Bum-keun	Saudi Arabia

Goalscorers

There were 69 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 2.16 goals per match.

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Qualified teams for Summer Olympics

The following four teams from the AFC qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympic men’s football tournament, including Japan which qualified as hosts.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in Summer Olympics1
Japan	7 September 2013	10 (1936, 1956, 1964, 1968, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
South Korea	22 January 2020	10 (1948, 1964, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016)
Saudi Arabia	22 January 2020	2 (1984, 1996)
Australia	25 January 2020	72 (1956, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008)