Sri Lanka has been drawn into Group D of the qualifiers for the AFC U-23 Championship 2016.
The draw was held at the AFC headquarter in Kuala Lumpur. The qualifiers will be held from March 23 to 31, 2015 while the tournament proper will be played in January 2016.
This is the second edition of the tournament, which has been renamed AFC U-23 Championship 2016 from AFC U-22 Championship in the inaugural edition.
Iraq are the defending champions.
The qualifying competition is divided into two zones – The West Zone comprises West, South, and Central Asia, and the East Zone contains East and Southeast Asia.
There are three groups of five teams and two groups of four teams in the West Zone (total five groups, 23 teams) while the East Zone have five groups of four teams (total five groups, 20 teams).
Ten group winners and five best-second placed teams from all groups (total 15 teams) will qualify for the final competition where hosts Qatar await.
With the average age of the current Sri Lanka National squad being 23, it is likely that almost the entire squad will be eligible to play in this tournament. Furthermore the Sri Lanka U21 side which won bronze medal at the 3rd Lusofonia Games earlier in the year was captained by Sri Lanka goalkeeper Sujan Perera, Kavindu Ishan(vice-captain), Zarwan Johar, Mohomed Rifnaz, Hakeem Kamil, Sajith Kumara, Mdushan De Silva; all of whom are in the national squad.
The AFC U-23 Championship 2016 will serve as the Olympics qualifiers in every alternate edition. The top three teams from the 2016 edition will represent Asia at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
Following is the draw:
Group A: Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Maldives
Group B: Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan
Group C: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nepal, Palestine, Afghanistan.
Group D: UAE, Yemen, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka
Group E: Syria, Uzbekistan, India, Bangladesh
Group F: Australia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei
Group G: DPR Korea, Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines
Group H: South Korea, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Brunei Darussalam
Group I: Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Macau
Group J: China, Laos, Singapore, Mongolia
