The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was a men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship. Players born on or after 1 January 1993 were eligible to compete in the tournament.[1]
The draw for the qualifiers was held on 4 December 2014, 11:00 UTC+8, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[4][5] A total of 43 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage and were drawn into ten groups.
West Zone had 23 entrants from Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia (excluding hosts Qatar who did not enter the qualifying stage), where they were drawn into three groups of five teams and two groups of four teams
East Zone had 20 entrants from ASEAN and East Asia, where they were drawn into five groups of four teams.
The teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous season in 2013.
In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the best five runners-up from all groups qualified for the final tournament.
Tiebreakers
The teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:[1]
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.
Group stage
The matches were played between 23 and 31 March 2015 for Groups A and C (five-team groups); 27–31 March 2015 for Groups D–J (four-team groups); 16–20 May 2015 for Group B (due to postponement).[6]
All matches were later scheduled to be held in the United Arab Emirates between 16 and 24 May 2015.[8] After the withdrawal of Turkmenistan, the dates were shortened to 16–20 May 2015.[9]
In order to ensure equality when comparing the runner-up team of all groups, the results of the matches against the 5th-placed team in Groups A and C were ignored due to the other groups having only four teams.
The best runner-up teams among those ranked second in the groups were determined as follows:[1]
Greater number of points obtained from group matches identified by AFC;
Goal difference resulting from group matches identified by AFC;
Greater number of goals scored in group matches identified by AFC;
Greater number of wins in group matches identified by AFC;
Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in group matches identified by AFC (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);
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Oman (Group A)
United Arab Emirates (Groups B and D)
Iran (Group C)
Bangladesh (Group E)
Chinese Taipei (Group F)
Thailand (Group G)
Indonesia (Group H)
Malaysia (Group I)
Laos (Group J)
Omar Khribin (6 goals)
