Malaysia will host the first edition of the Solidarity Cup, a new tournament for emerging national soccer teams in Asia, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced on Wednesday.
The competition will take place from November 2nd-15th with the national teams separated into two groups, the AFC said.
AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said;
“The AFC Solidarity Cup is an exciting initiative to develop national team football in Asia. The AFC is excited about this new tournament – the AFC Solidarity Cup – as we look to deliver the objective of our Vision and Mission which is to make Asian teams stronger on the global stage.”
The new competition brings together aspiring AFC Member Associations, giving teams the opportunity to play competitive international matches when they are not participating in FIFA or AFC national team competitions.
The AFC Solidarity Cup is a unique competition where the focus is on development through increased opportunities to compete at the international level, but also provides targeted education and training, such as coaching, referees and technical analysis. There will also be event management training offered to Member Associations, who hold aspirations to host international tournaments in the future.
The AFC Solidarity Cup logo, also launched at the draw today, reflects the key values of the competition: unity, strength, team spirit, solidarity and energy.
The Tournament
Group A will contain five teams, including Nepal, Pakistan, and Brunei. The other two teams in the group will be decided via a playoff, with one of either Timor Leste or Chinese Taipei, and Bhutan or Bangladesh making it to the tournament.
Group B will feature Sri Lanka, Macau, Mongolia, and either Maldives or Laos, who like the undecided teams in Group A, face each other in playoffs for the 2019 Asian Cup Qualifiers.
The playoff rounds end on Oct. 11, at which point the nations taking part in the Solidarity Cup will be finalised.
“As the name suggests, the competition brings together a group of our aspiring member associations in a single event,” AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalif said in a statement.
“This is a unique competition where the focus is on development which, through mutual support and solidarity, will take Asian football to a new level.”
A total of eight or nine teams will participate in the AFC Solidarity Cup Malaysia 2016 – six of them being Brunei Darussalam, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka – who were all eliminated from the 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 AFC Asian Cup Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1.
Two or three teams – Laos or the Maldives, Chinese Taipei or Timor-Leste and Bangladesh –who will be eliminated from the 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2, will also participate. These will be decided after the completion of Play-off 2 on October 11.
The pairings for the currently ongoing 2019 AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2 are;
Pairing 1: Maldives v Laos – Pairing 2: Bangladesh v Bhutan – Pairing 3: Timor-Leste v Chinese Taipei
If Bhutan is the losing team in the pairing above, only the losers from Pairings 1 and 3 will take part in the AFC Solidarity Cup, as Bhutan have not expressed interest to participate.
Option 1: Eight Participating Teams
If Bhutan is the losing team in Pairing 2, there will be eight teams taking part – six from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 and two from the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2.
There will be two centralised groups of four teams and the winner and runner-up (total four teams) will advance to the semi-finals. The two winners in the semi-finals will battle it out in the final match.
Option 2: Nine Participating Teams
If Bhutan is not the losing team in Pairing 2, three teams from the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Play-off 2 and six from the Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 will form the competition.
The teams will be drawn into two groups (of four and five teams), and the two group winners will play in the final.
Draw Seedings
Teams from Preliminary Joint Qualification Round 1 were seeded based on the last FIFA Rankings released on August 11 and will be drawn from the following pots:
Pot 1: Nepal (seeded 1st), Sri Lanka (seeded 2nd) – Pot 2: Pakistan (seeded 3rd), Macau (seeded 4th) – Pot 3: Brunei Darussalam (seeded 5th), Mongolia (seeded 6th)
There will be no rankings for the teams from the AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers Playoff 2 and they will be seeded into a single pot, Pot 4.
The Draw
Group A: Teams Nepal, Pakistan, Brunei Darussalam, Timor-Leste / Chinese Taipei, Bangladesh / Bhutan
Group B: Teams Sri Lanka, Macau, Mongolia, Maldives / Laos
The new competition will kick off on November 2 with the final is set to take place on November 15th.
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