2016 AFC U-16 Championship

2016 AFC U-16 Championship

Tournament details
Host country	India
Dates	15 September – 2 October 2016
Teams	16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Iraq (1st title)
Runners-up	Iran
Tournament statistics
Matches played	31
Goals scored	109 (3.52 per match)
Attendance	32,983 (1,064 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Mohammed Dawood (6 goals)
Best player	Mohammed Dawood

The 2016 AFC U-16 Championship was the 17th edition of the AFC U-16 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-16 national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in India, as announced by the AFC on 3 June 2015,^[1][2] and was played between 15 September and 2 October 2016.^[3] A total of 16 teams will play in the tournament.

Same as previous editions, the tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup also in India as the AFC representatives, besides India who qualified automatically as hosts. If India were among the top four teams, three play-off matches would be played to decide the fifth-placed team which also qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup; however, this was not necessary as India were eliminated in the group stage.^[4]

This marked the first time a U-17 World Cup host nation hosts the AFC U-16 Championship.

Iraq won the tournament after beating Iran 4–3 on penalties in the final match.

Qualification

The draw for the qualifiers was held on 5 June 2015.^[5] A total of 45 teams were drawn into eleven groups, with the eleven group winners and the four best runners-up qualifying for the final tournament, together with India who qualified automatically as hosts but also competed in the qualifying stage.

The qualifiers were played between 12–20 September 2015, except for Group H which were played between 2–6 September 2015.^[6]

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.^[7] Nepal were replaced by Kyrgyzstan due to one of their players failing a MRI bone test.^[8]

On 12 April 2016, the AFC Competitions Committee decided that if the FIFA suspension of the Kuwait Football Association was not lifted by 13 May 2016, the next highest ranked team in the AFC U-16 Championship qualifying competition would replace Kuwait in the competition.^[9]

On 13 May 2016, the FIFA Congress confirmed the suspension of Kuwait, and asked the FIFA Council to lift the suspension as soon as the necessary requirements are fulfilled.^[10] As a result, Kuwait were replaced by Yemen, the next highest ranked team in the AFC U-16 Championship qualifying competition.^[11]

Team	Qualified as	Appearance	Previous best performance
India	* !Hosts / Group E (3rd best) runners-up	07 !7th	05 !Quarter-finals (2002)
Uzbekistan	Group A winners	09 !9th	01 !Champions (2012)
Kyrgyzstan	Group B winners	01 !1st	99 !Debut
Iraq	Group C winners	09 !9th	03 !Third place (1985), Semi-finals (2012)
Saudi Arabia	Group D winners	10 !10th	01 !Champions (1985, 1988)
Iran	Group E winners	10 !10th	01 !Champions (2008)
Malaysia	Group G winners	04 !4th	05 !Quarter-finals (2014)
North Korea	Group H winners	10 !10th	01 !Champions (2010, 2014)
South Korea	Group I winners	12 !12th	01 !Champions (1986, 2002)
Australia	Group J winners	05 !5th	03 !Semi-finals (2010, 2014)
Japan	Group K winners	13 !13th	01 !Champions (1994, 2006)
Vietnam	Group J (1st best) runners-up	06 !6th	04 !Fourth place (2000)
Thailand	Group H (2nd best) runners-up	10 !10th	01 !Champions (1998)
United Arab Emirates	Group D (4th best) runners-up	07 !7th	02 !Runners-up (1990)
Oman	Group B (5th best) runners-up	09 !9th	01 !Champions (1996, 2000)
Yemen	Group A (6th best) runners-up	05 !5th	02 !Runners-up (2002)

Venues

The tournament is played in two venues:

Margao	Goa 2016 AFC U-16 Championship (India)
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
Capacity: 19,000
Bambolim
GMC Stadium
Capacity: 3,600

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 26 May 2016, 15:00 IST (UTC+5:30), in Goa (postponed from 4 May 2016).^[12][13] The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.^[4] The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous edition in 2014.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
India (hosts; position A1)  North Korea  South Korea  Australia	Iran  Malaysia  Japan  Uzbekistan	Thailand  Saudi Arabia  Oman  Vietnam	United Arab Emirates  Yemen  Kyrgyzstan  Iraq

Squads

Players born on or after 1 January 2000 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team can register a maximum of 23 players (minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers).^[14]

Group stage

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

Tiebreakers

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[14]

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 are local, IST (UTC+5:30).^[15]

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	2	1	0	7	3	+4	7	Knockout stage
2	United Arab Emirates	3	2	1	0	7	4	+3	7
3	Saudi Arabia	3	0	1	2	6	9	−3	1
4	India (H)	3	0	1	2	5	9	−4	1

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan	3	3	0	0	21	0	+21	9	Knockout stage
2	Vietnam	3	2	0	1	6	10	−4	6
3	Kyrgyzstan	3	1	0	2	2	11	−9	3
4	Australia	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Oman	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5	Knockout stage
2	Iraq	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5
3	South Korea	3	1	1	1	4	2	+2	4
4	Malaysia	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1

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Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uzbekistan	3	3	0	0	9	4	+5	9	Knockout stage
2	North Korea	3	2	0	1	7	4	+3	6
3	Yemen	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1
4	Thailand	3	0	1	2	5	10	−5	1

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Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary (extra time is not used).^[14]

Bracket

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	25 September – Margao
	Iran	5
					29 September – Margao
	Vietnam	0
					Iran (p)	1 (6)
	26 September – Margao
					North Korea	1 (5)
	Oman	1 (2)
									2 October – Margao
	North Korea (p)	1 (4)
									Iran	0 (3)
	25 September – Bambolim
									Iraq (p)	0 (4)
	Japan	1
					29 September – Bambolim
	United Arab Emirates	0
					Japan	2
	26 September – Bambolim
					Iraq	4
	Uzbekistan	0
	Iraq	2

Quarter-finals

Winners qualify for 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

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Semi-finals

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Final

Winners

AFC U-16 Championship 2016 Winners
Iraq First title

Awards

Most Valuable Player

• Mohammed Dawood^[16]

Top Scorer

• Mohammed Dawood^[16]

Fair Play

•  Iraq^[16]

Goalscorers

6 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: the-afc.com

Tournament ranking

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
1	Iraq	6	3	3	0	10	5	+5	12	Champions
2	Iran	6	3	3	0	13	4	+9	12	Runners-up
3	Japan	5	4	0	1	24	4	+20	12	Semi-finalists
4	North Korea	5	2	2	1	9	6	+3	8
5	Uzbekistan	4	3	0	1	9	6	+3	9	Eliminated in quarter-finals
6	United Arab Emirates	4	2	1	1	7	5	+2	7
7	Oman	4	1	3	0	5	2	+3	6
8	Vietnam	4	2	0	2	6	15	−9	6
9	South Korea	3	1	1	1	4	2	+2	4	Eliminated in group stage
10	Kyrgyzstan	3	1	0	2	2	11	−9	3
11	Saudi Arabia	3	0	1	2	6	9	−3	1
12	Yemen	3	0	1	2	1	4	−3	1
13	India (H)	3	0	1	2	5	9	−4	1
14	Thailand	3	0	1	2	5	10	−5	1
15	Malaysia	3	0	1	2	1	7	−6	1
16	Australia	3	0	0	3	2	10	−8	0

Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup

The following five teams from AFC qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup. India qualified as hosts.^[17]

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in tournament1
India	01 !5 December 2013	00 !0 (Debut)
Iraq	05 !26 September 2016	01 !1 (2013)
Iran	02 !25 September 2016	03 !3 (2001, 2009, 2013)
Japan	03 !25 September 2016	07 !7 (1993, 1995, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013)
North Korea	04 !26 September 2016	04 !4 (2005, 2007, 2011, 2015)

¹ Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Ban on North Korean manager and goalkeeper

On 4 November 2016, the AFC announced that the North Korean manager Yung Jong-su and goalkeeper Jang Paek-ho were banned for a year for "bringing the game into disrepute following the deliberate conceding of a goal" during their final group match against Uzbekistan.^[18] The goal in question was conceded in the 49th minute, which Jang appeared to duck out of the way of a direct kick from the Uzbek goalkeeper. Uzbekistan won the match 3–1 and finished top of the group, meaning they would meet Iraq in the quarter-finals, which they went on to lose. North Korea, as group runners-up, would meet Oman in the quarter-finals, which they won and qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.^[19] The ban means both Yung and Jang are suspended from the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The North Korean team were also served a suspended ban from the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship. They will be allowed to compete in the qualifiers, but if the team "engage in similar behaviour", they will be automatically excluded from the competition.^[18]

References

External links

• AFC U-16 Championship, the-AFC.com