AFC Futsal Championship draw on March 10
Australia goes in Ranked 5th out of a field of 16
Kuala Lumpur: The official draw for the 16 teams participating in the 2012 AFC Futsal Championship will take place in the UAE on March 10.
AFC circulated the draw mechanism on Monday to all the participating countries who will lock horns in the continental showpiece to be held in Dubai in May.
After the successful completion of the ASEAN Zone qualifiers in Thailand on Sunday, the 16 countries have now been confirmed for the tournament proper.
The ranking based on the previous championship is: 1. IR Iran 2. Uzbekistan 3. Japan 4. China 5. Australia 6. Kyrgyzstan 7. Lebanon 8. Thailand 9. Indonesia 10. Tajikistan 11. Korea Republic 12. Turkmenistan 13. Chinese Taipei 14. Kuwait 15. Qatar and 16. UAE (unranked hosts).
Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon (all West), Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan (all Central), China PR, Korea Republic and Chinese Taipei (all East); Australia, Indonesia and Thailand (all ASEAN) qualified for the finals following the qualifying tournaments in the respective zones while Iran, Uzbekistan and Japan entered the competition by virtue of finishing as the top three teams in the 2010 edition. UAE, being the hosts, are automatic qualifiers.
According to the draw mechanism, there will be four groups of four teams each who will play a one-round league with the top two teams in the groups qualifying for the quarterfinals.
6 Comments
Feb 28, 2012, 8:19 pm
Didn’t we just get thrashed a new one by Thailand? Doesn’t that make these ranking void?
Feb 28, 2012, 9:08 pm
Goes on result from last championships.
Feb 28, 2012, 9:52 pm
I hope we draw China in the pool and avoid Thailand!
Feb 28, 2012, 10:48 pm
We should be in the same pot as Thailand as they are 8th. We’ll get one from 1-4, 9-12 , 13-16. If only we’d beaten Uzbeks last time!
Feb 29, 2012, 11:58 am
will take a HUGE effort by Steve/Rob and the boys to get up… hard playing against countries who have a professional league… Id like to see us avoid the Thais, Japan, China, Uzbeks and of course the iranis!
Mar 2, 2012, 6:02 pm
Great to see the boys get 3rd and qualify! Although drawing against malaysia really showed the lack of experience with the boys. I expected them to go into the final easily. Watching the goals from the thailand game showed me that knighty needs a few more quicker and experienced players to have any chance of keeping up with the better asian teams and more importantly qualifying for the world cup.