Vietnam hosts 1 group of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers, has the same draw advantage as Japan and Korea

TPO - On April 30, AFC announced that Vietnam will be one of the countries hosting the matches in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers.

The decision was approved at the AFC Competition Committee meeting, chaired by Vietnam representative VFF President Tran Quoc Tuan as a member of the Standing Committee and Head of the AFC Competition Committee. The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will feature 44 teams, divided into 11 groups of 4 teams each.

The groups will compete in a single round-robin format, starting from September 1-9. The eleven group winners and four best runners-up will qualify for the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, to be held in Saudi Arabia.

The draw will take place on May 29 at the AFC headquarters. The Vietnam U23 team is seeded in Group 1 thanks to their achievement of reaching the quarter-finals of the 2024 AFC U23 Championship, along with Japan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, South Korea, Indonesia, Qatar, China, Tajikistan and Kuwait. This is an advantage for coach Kim Sang-sik and his team in their goal of winning a ticket to the finals.

VFF Vice President in charge of professional affairs Tran Anh Tu said that in preparation, the U22 Vietnam team will continue to be given the opportunity to gather and train at the same time as the Vietnam team's FIFA days. Recently, the team had an effective training session when participating in the U22 CFA China 2025 international friendly tournament.

Little Phung

Source: https://tienphong.vn/viet-nam-dang-cai-1-bang-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-2026-co-loi-the-boc-tham-ngang-nhat-ban-han-quoc-post1738678.tpo