China (red shirt) after losing 0-1 to Iran in the group stage of the AFC U23 Championship in Songkhla, Thailand on January 15, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
The AFC announced that it would be live-streaming the draw in Qatar on the afternoon of November 23 on its YouTube account, but the entire ceremony was not shown due to technical issues. The AFC only announced the results on its social media accounts after the draw was completed. So fans did not see the draw, but representatives of the teams present in Doha were still able to watch the entire ceremony.
Sohu (Search Fox) is a leading online forum in China, with over 200 million monthly visits. From mainstream media outlets to ordinary readers, everyone can post on the site. The above article attracted 120,000 views.
| Table A | Table B | Table C | Table D |
| Qatar | Japan | Saudi Arabia | Uzbekistan |
| Australia | Korea | Iraq | Vietnam |
| Jordan | UAE | Thailand | Kuwait |
| Indonesia | China | Tajikistan | Malaysia |
In the article, the author mentioned that China had participated in the group stage of the U23 Asian Cup three times, winning only one and losing 11 matches. This time, the team fell into an "extremely bad" group, with South Korea, Japan and the UAE. "Don't talk about getting out of the group stage, scoring one goal is very difficult for China," the author wrote. "So don't expect the team to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics."
The author said China had bought the rights to the draw, but all they saw was a black screen. After the ceremony, the grouping results were revealed. "It's almost blatant cheating," the author added. "No one knows how the draws were made, and the East Asian teams suffered."
The author also believes that the AFC is controlled by West Asian countries, and this time Japan is the candidate for the championship. South Korea, UAE and China are the strongest in the next three seeding groups. "The main draw character is a representative of Uzbekistan, and this team is in an extremely easy group, with Vietnam, Kuwait and Malaysia," the author commented. "Saudi Arabia has also invested a lot in football recently, and they are also in an easy group with Iraq, Thailand and Tajikistan."
One account also said that this is a good opportunity for China to compete with the top teams in the continent, because they have never passed the group stage at the tournament. Southeast Asian teams such as Thailand, Malaysia or Vietnam have all done this at least once.
The 2024 AFC U23 Championship will take place from April 15 to May 3 in Qatar, with 16 teams divided into four groups of four teams each playing a round-robin to compete for a place in the quarter-finals. The top three teams will qualify for the 2024 Olympics, while the fourth-placed team will play a play-off match against African representative Guinea for a place in Paris.
Hoang An
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