Iran drawn with Saudi Arabia in AFC U-16 Championship 2016
Tasnim – KUALA LUMPUR, Iran has been pitted against Saudi Arabia in the AFC U-16 Championship.
Iran has been drawn alongside host India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Group A of the championship, to be played in Goa in September-October 2016.
Saudi Arabia has previously won the tournament twice in 1985 and 1988 while Iran has won it once in 2008.
Draw Result
Group A: India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates
Group B: Australia, Japan, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan
Group C: Korea Republic, Malaysia, Oman, Iraq
Group D: DPR Korea, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Yemen
Each group will play a one-round league, from which the top two teams in each group (eight teams in total) will qualify to the quarter-final where the four winners will qualify to the semi-final. The winners of semi-final will advance to the final.
The top four ranked teams of this year’s AFC U-16 Championship will qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017, the-afc.com wrote.
In the event that India finish among the top four teams, three play-off matches will be organized among the four losing teams of the quarter-final to determine the fifth placed team that will qualify for India 2017.