The homepage and information channels of the Asian Football Confederation have not yet announced the list of 16 teams participating in the 2024 AFC U23 Championship finals. This agency has just posted information about the results of the third qualifying round and the rankings of the groups.
Normally, at the end of the qualifying rounds of continental tournaments, the AFC will confirm the list of teams participating in the final round. However, this has not happened for the 2024 AFC U23 Championship, possibly due to an incident in the final round of matches.
U23 Iran complained about the result of the match with U23 Uzbekistan.
The Asian Football Confederation's delay in announcing the official list is believed to be due to the Iranian Football Federation filing a complaint about refereeing errors. The Iranian U23 team lost to Uzbekistan U23 in the final match. This result left them in second place in Group E.
In the ranking of the second-placed teams, U23 Iran is only ranked 5th, with the same sub-index (goal difference, number of goals scored) as U23 Malaysia. The West Asian team received more penalty cards, so they ranked lower and did not qualify for the U23 Asia qualifiers.
However, a rare incident occurred in the match where U23 Iran lost to U23 Uzbekistan. In the match, a player of U23 Uzbekistan received 2 yellow cards but was not sent off. The Iranian Football Federation complained to the AFC.
There is no clear regulation on how the match result will be determined in this rare case. Both U23 Iran, U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Malaysia (the last team in the list of 4 second-placed teams in the qualifying round to participate in the 2024 AFC U23 Championship) must wait for the AFC's decision.
In the 2024 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers, Vietnam U23 secured an early berth and was the only team to secure a place in the qualifying round after the second round. Coach Philippe Troussier's team topped Group C after beating Guam U23, Yemen U23 and drawing with Singapore U23.
The 2024 AFC U23 Championship will take place from April 15 to May 3, 2024 in Qatar. The top three teams will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The fourth-placed team will play a play-off against an African representative.
Van Hai
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