Malaysia and Indonesia regret losing their Asian Games qualification spots to Vietnam's U23 team.

(Dan Tri Newspaper) - After the AFC and the Asian Olympic Council (OCA) awarded the ticket to the 2026 Asian Games to the Vietnam U23 team, many Southeast Asian teams expressed regret at losing this opportunity.

The 20th Asian Games in 2026 will take place from September 19th to October 4th in Aichi-Nagoya (Japan). There will be two football events at this year's Asian Games: men's football and women's football.

According to the decision of the OCA and host nation Japan, there will be 12 women's football teams participating in the Asian Games, including the 12 teams that qualified for the 2026 Asian Women's Football Championship, which will take place in March. At the same time, there will be 16 teams participating in the men's football event, for the U23 age group, including the 16 teams that participated in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship in January.

The Malaysian U23 team (in yellow jerseys) did not qualify for the 20th Asian Games, while the Vietnamese U23 team secured a ticket to this year's Asian Games (Photo: Khoa Nguyen).

Following the decision by the OCA and Japan, the host nation of the 20th Asian Games, many Southeast Asian football teams expressed regret at losing their spot in the Asian Games. Indonesian team leader Sumardji said: “To date, Indonesia has not received any official notification that we will not be participating in the Asian Games in Japan.”

“I think Indonesian football still has time to participate in this year’s Games. I will discuss this with international organizations and coordinate with the National Sports Commission. We will continuously update the situation.”

Indonesian football had even submitted a preliminary list of teams for the 20th Asian Games two months ago. However, we only recently received the list of eligible teams (announced on February 10th). Indonesian football will verify the above information,” said Sumardji, head of the Indonesian national team delegation.

Equally surprised, like Mr. Sumardji, was the Secretary-General of the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI), Yunus Nusi: “PSSI has contacted the Indonesian Olympic Committee but has not received an official response. Currently, PSSI has only received information about not being able to participate in the 2026 Asian Games through the media.”

The Indonesian U23 team (in white jerseys) also failed to qualify for the 20th Asian Games (Photo: Getty).

"We are waiting for an official response from the Indonesian Olympic Committee to facilitate our preparations. If this decision is made by the host nation of the Asian Games, Japan, I believe we cannot reverse it," PSSI Secretary General Yunus Nusi said regretfully.

Regarding the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the organization revealed that the decision on the list of teams participating in the 20th Asian Games rests with the OCA and host nation Japan. The AFC's role is merely to implement and prepare the technical aspects of football at the Asian Games.

It's not just Indonesian football that's regretting this; Malaysian football is in a similar situation. The New Straits Times of Malaysia commented: "The absence of the Malaysian U23 team from the 2026 Asian Games stems from the underlying reason that we previously skipped the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou (China). At that time, the Malaysian U23 team prioritized the 2024 U23 Asian Championship qualifiers."

“At that time, the 2024 U23 Asian Championship qualifiers were only about 10 days away from the Asian Games, causing the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to lose focus. The last time the Malaysian U23 team participated in the Asian Games was in 2018 in Indonesia.”

That year, we reached the round of 16. That was also the best performance of Malaysian football at the Asian Games since the men's football event at the Asiad was introduced for the U23 age group,” the New Straits Times added.

Currently, because the FAM Executive Committee is no longer working due to the case of 7 naturalized players suspected of using forged documents, Malaysian football has had to borrow the words of AFC Secretary General Datuk Seri Windsor Paul John (a Malaysian) to announce to fans in the country: "AFC will register the 16 teams that participated in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship to participate in the 20th Asian Games."

According to the statement above, Southeast Asia will only have two representatives at the 2026 AFC U23 Championship: Vietnam U23 and Thailand U23.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/malaysia-indonesia-tiec-nuoi-khi-danh-roi-ve-du-asiad-ve-tay-u23-viet-nam-20260212121218772.htm