The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 6th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup (previously the AFC U-23 Championship before rebranding from 2021),[1] the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in Qatar from 15 April to 3 May 2024.[2]
The tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the 2024 Summer Olympics men's football tournament in France. The top three teams of the tournament qualified for the Olympics as the AFC representatives, while the fourth-best team entered a single-elimination AFC–CAF play-off match.[3] A total of 16 teams competed in the tournament.[4]
Saudi Arabia were the defending champions, but failed to defend the title after losing to Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals, who in turn lost the final to Japan in both teams' hunt for the second title.
Host selection
Qatar was selected as the host for this competition by the Asian Football Confederation Competitions Committee on 30 September 2022.[5] This marked the second time that Qatar was hosting this competition, the first was in 2016.
The draw took place at the Wyndham Doha West Bay in Doha, Qatar on 23 November 2023 at 12:00 AST(UTC+3).[7]
The 16 teams were placed into four groups of four teams, with seeding based on their performance at the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.[8] As hosts, Qatar were ranked as the top seeded team.
Players born on or after 1 January 2001 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team registered a squad of 18 to 23 players, including a minimum of three goalkeepers (Regulations Article 26.3).[4]
Group stage
Tiebreakers
Teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 7.3):[4]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time were counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs were counted as draws.[20]
^For the 5th to 8th place, teams were ranked in descending order as follows: goal difference in the quarter-finals, goals scored in the quarter-finals and the procedure used same as the teams eliminated in the group stage.[20]
^For the 9th to 16th place, teams were ranked in descending order as follows: position in the group stage, points in all group matches, goal difference in all group matches, goals scored in all group matches, disciplinary points in all group matches and drawing of lots.[20]
Controversies
Matches
Opening Match: Qatar vs Indonesia
The opening match of AFC U-23 Asian Cup in Group A, Qatar vs Indonesia, faced numerous backlashes due to controversial refereeing decisions from Tajikistan referee, Nasrullo Kabirov. The Indonesia U-23 national football team accused Kabirov of being biased towards Qatar, with Qatar receiving favourable decisions, while Indonesia was repeatedly scrutinized by Kadirov which leads to red cards for Ivar Jenner and Ramadhan Sananta.[21]
Qatar took the lead in the first half with Khalid Ali Sabah scoring in the 45+1 minute through a penalty kick awarded by the referee for a foul committed by Indonesian defender Rizky Ridho against Qatari player Mahdi Salem.[22] Initially, the referee awarded a free kick to Indonesia, but after consulting VAR, he ruled in favor of Qatar, leading to protests from the Indonesian players.[22]Sabah converted the penalty, beating goalkeeper Ernando.[22]
Ramadhan Sananta was also shown a direct red card during the match. Initially, the referee had issued a yellow card, but after a VAR review, he upgraded it to a red card during injury time.[22]
Indonesian national football team head coach Shin Tae-yong expressed his outrage over the poor refereeing decisions:
Congratulations to Qatar. The players did their best to deliver a good performance, especially considering we were down in numbers and didn't give up easily. However, many of the referee's decisions throughout the game, if you look at them, it's not a football match, it's a comedy show and highly exaggerated.
I can't say anything about the players who received red cards, I'm speechless. Football shouldn't be played like this. On our first red card, there was no contact at all. Why did they use VAR in situations like this?[22]
Sivakorn Pu-udom, the Thai referee who officiated the match, was highlighted due to the controversies on second-half injury time. The injury time was only supposed to last 10 minutes. However, until the 100th (90+10') minute, he had not stopped the match, even when entering the 103th (90+13') minute, in which midfielder Mohamed Al-Manai scored Qatar's second goal. Then, in the process of the goal, there was actually an incident where a Qatari player pulled a Jordanian player down. VAR had intervened, but Pu-Udom was reluctant to look directly through the television screen on the side of the field. Pu-udom then decided to immediately legalize the goal, which led to Jordan's defeat and, ultimately, resulted in Jordan's worst ever U-23 Asian Cup performance.[24]
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