The 2016 AFC U-19 Championship was the 39th edition of the AFC U-19 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-19 national teams of Asia. The tournament was hosted by Bahrain, as announced by the AFC on 3 June 2015, and was scheduled to be played between 13–30 October 2016. A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.
Same as previous editions, the tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea as the AFC representatives, besides South Korea who qualified automatically as hosts. If South Korea 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-20 World Cup; however, this was not necessary as South Korea were eliminated in the group stage.
Japan conquered the title for the first time after beating Saudi Arabia in the final's penalty shootout, and also set a record in the competition for being the first team to win the tournament without conceding a single goal.
On 25 October 2016, the AFC President, Salman Al-Khalifa, congratulated Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, IR Iran and Japan on qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017. The four teams will join hosts South Korea to make up Asia's five representatives at the tournament.
Qualification
The draw for the qualifiers was held on 5 June 2015. A total of 43 teams were drawn into ten groups, with the ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualifying for the final tournament, together with Bahrain who qualified automatically as hosts but also competed in the qualifying stage.
The qualifiers were played between 28 September – 6 October 2015.
Qualified teams The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Team Qualified as Appearance Previous best performance (1986) Group J winners (1973, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2006) Group F winners (1975, 1977, 1978, 1988, 2000) Group I winners (1985) Group G winners (19671, 19691) Group A winners (2008) Group H winners (1959, 1960, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2012) Group F (1st best) runners-up (2006, 2008) Group C winners (2008) Group J (2nd best) runners-up (2010) Group D winners (2014) Group H (3rd best) runners-up (1962, 1969) Group B winners (1986, 1992) Group I (4th best) runners-up (1976, 2006, 2010) Group E winners (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976) Group B (5th best) runners-up (1978, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2014) 1 As South Vietnam
Venues The tournament is played in two venues: Riffa Bahrain National Stadium Capacity: 30,000 Isa Town Khalifa Sports City Stadium Capacity: 20,000
Draw The draw for the final tournament was held on 30 April 2016, 19:00 AST (UTC+3), in Manama. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous edition in 2014.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Squads
Players born on or after 1 January 1997 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team can register a maximum of 23 players (minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers).
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: Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned; Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned; Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned; 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; Goal difference in all the group matches; Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play; 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); Drawing of lots.
All times are local, AST (UTC+3).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.
Bracket
Quarter-finals Winners qualified for 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Semi-finals
Final
Winners
Awards Most Valuable Player Ritsu Dōan
Top Scorer Sami Al-Najei
Fair Play
Goalscorers 4 goals
Sami Al-Najei Abdulrahman Al-Yami
3 goals
Reza Jafari Waleed Kareem Ali Yuto Iwasaki Koki Ogawa Rakan Al-Shamlan
2 goals
Mohammed Al-Hardan Abolfazl Razzaghpour Mazin Fayyadh Shunta Nakamura Ayman Al-Khulaif Cho Young-wook Doston Ibrokhimov
1 goal
George Blackwood Mario Shabow Liam Youlley Ahemd Bughammar Sayed Ebrahim Mohamed Marhoon Ahmed Mohamed Talal Al Naar Aref Aghasi Reza Karamolachaab Mehdi Mehdikhani Reza Shekari Sajad Hussein Alaa Abbas Abdulnabi Ritsu Dōan Teruki Hara Takeru Kishimoto Koji Miyoshi Takehiro Tomiyasu Han Kwang-song Ryang Hyon-ju Abdulrasheed Umaru Abdulelah Al-Amri Abdulrahman Ghareeb Mansour Al-Muwallad Han Chan-hee Jeong Tae-wook Kang Ji-hoon Kim Geon-ung Nuriddin Hamroqulov Ehson Panjshanbe Karomatullo Saidov Anon Amornlerdsak Supachai Jaided Sittichok Phaso Faisal Al Matroushi Husain Abdulla Omar Ahmed Rashed Jassem Yaqoub Bobur Abdukhalikov Sayidjamol Davlatjonov Jasurbek Yakhshiboev Hà Đức Chinh Hồ Minh Dĩ Đoàn Văn Hậu Trần Thành
1 own goal
Abolfazl Razzaghpour (against Qatar)
References
External links , the-AFC.com