Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The AFC has announced that India will host the AFC U-16 Championship 2016, with the draw for the qualifying competition to be held at AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on June 5.
A total of 45 nations including India will participate in the qualifiers, while the draw seeding will be based on the rankings from the last edition in 2014 which was won by DPR Korea (pictured).
The 45 nations will be divided into two qualifying zones – West Zone which has 24 teams and East Zone with 21 teams.
The West Zone will have six groups of four teams while the East Zone will see one group of five teams and four groups of four teams.
Eleven group winners and four best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals, with hosts India receiving an automatic qualification (total 16 teams).
In case India finish top of their qualifying group or among the four best second-placed teams, the next (5th) second best placed nation will qualify for the final competition.
The Member Associations who have expressed their interest to host the qualifiers will be drawn into separate groups.
The qualifying matches will be played from September 12 to 20.