# 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup

The 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup was the 19th edition of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup (including previous editions of the AFC U-16 Championship and AFC U-17 Championship), the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-17 national teams of Asia. This edition was the first since 2006 to be played as an under-17 tournament, as the AFC proposed to switch the tournament from under-16 to under-17 starting from 2023. Moreover, the tournament was also rebranded from the "AFC U-16 Championship" to the "AFC U-17 Asian Cup".
On 25 January 2021, the AFC announced that Bahrain would retain hosting rights for the 2023 edition after the cancellation of the 2020 AFC U-16 Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Bahrain decided to withdraw the rights to host the competition on 16 June 2022, requiring a new host to be chosen at a later date. On 23 December 2022, Thailand were chosen to host the tournament by the AFC Executive Committee.
A total of 16 teams played in the tournament. The top four teams of the tournament qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Indonesia as the AFC representatives besides Indonesia who qualified automatically as the new host.
Japan were the title holders, having won the title in 2018, and managed to defend their title.

## Qualification

Qualification matches were played between 1–9 October 2022.

### Qualified teams

A total of 16 teams including hosts qualified for the final tournament. Bahrain, Indonesia, Oman, United Arab Emirates and North Korea (the latter of which did not enter qualifying) all missed out on this edition after initially qualifying for the previous edition. Furthermore, Afghanistan, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam all qualified for this edition after initially missing out.
| Team | Qualified as | Appearance | Previous best performance |
| Japan | Group A winners | 16th | Champions (1994, 2006, 2018) |
| Malaysia | Group B winners | 6th | Quarter-finals (2014) |
| Qatar | Group C winners | 11th | Champions (1990) |
| Saudi Arabia | Group D winners | 11th | Champions (1985, 1988) |
| Yemen | Group E winners | 6th | Runners-up (2002) |
| Vietnam | Group F winners | 8th | Fourth place (2000) |
| Australia | Group G winners | 7th | Semi-finals (2010, 2014, 2018) |
| Tajikistan | Group H winners | 4th | Runners-up (2018) |
| Iran | Group I winners | 12th | Champions (2008) |
| Uzbekistan | Group J winners | 10th | Champions (2012) |
| South Korea | Best runners-up | 15th | Champions (1986, 2002) |
| China | 2nd best runners-up | 15th | Champions (1992, 2004) |
| Afghanistan | 3rd best runners-up | 2nd | Group stage (2018) |
| India | 4th best runners-up | 9th | Quarter-finals (2002, 2018) |
| Thailand | 5th best runners-up and hosts | 12th | Champions (1998) |
| Laos | 6th best runners-up | 3rd | Group stage (2004, 2012) |

## Venues

The competition was played in four venues across three cities/provinces.
| Bangkok | BangkokChonburiPathum Thani | Pathum Thani |
| Rajamangala Stadium | BangkokChonburiPathum Thani | Pathum Thani Stadium |
| Capacity: 51,552 | BangkokChonburiPathum Thani | Capacity: 10,114 |
| Pathum Thani | BangkokChonburiPathum Thani | Chonburi |
| Thammasat Stadium | BangkokChonburiPathum Thani | Chonburi Stadium |
| Capacity: 25,000 | BangkokChonburiPathum Thani | Capacity: 8,680 |

## Match officials

Referees
* Shen Yinhao (†)
* Thoriq Alkatiri
* Pranjal Banerjee
* Payam Heidari
* Ahmed Al-Ali (†)
* Ali Reda (†)
* Omar Al-Yaqoubi
* Kim Jong-hyeok (†)
* Nasrullo Kabirov
* Mongkolchai Pechsri
* Ahmed Eisa Darwish (†)
* Rustam Lutfullin (†)
Assistant referees
* Saleh Janahi
* Mohammed Manir Dhali
* Zhang Cheng
* Sulchan Nurhadi
* Arman Assadi
* Ahmed Al-Baghdadi
* Ayman Obeidat
* Ismailzhan Talipzhanov
* Hamed Al-Ghafri
* Park Kyun-yong
* Omar Al-Jamal
* Fadi Mahmoud
* Akmal Buriev
* Pattarapong Kijsathit
* Jasem Al-Ali
* Alisher Usmanov
(†): working as both referee and assistant referee.

## Draw

The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with the teams seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw. The draw took place and the match schedule was confirmed on 30 March 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Thailand (H) Japan Tajikistan South Korea | Australia India Iran Yemen | Malaysia Vietnam Afghanistan Saudi Arabia | China Uzbekistan Qatar Laos |

## Squads

Players born between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2008 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team should register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must be goalkeepers.

## Group stage

The group winners and runners-up advance to the quarter-finals.

### Tiebreakers

Teams are to be ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
* Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
* Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
* Drawing of lots.
All match times are in local time, ICT (UTC+7).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Thailand (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Yemen | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Malaysia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | −6 | 3 | |
| 4 | Laos | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | −3 | 0 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Iran | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | +7 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | South Korea | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | +7 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Afghanistan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 11 | −8 | 3 | |
| 4 | Qatar | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | −6 | 1 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Saudi Arabia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Australia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Tajikistan | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 | |
| 4 | China | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 9 | −5 | 1 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Japan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 5 | +8 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Uzbekistan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | India | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 10 | −5 | 1 | |
| 4 | Vietnam | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | −5 | 1 | |

## Knockout stage

The schedule for the knockout stage was released in 2023. The top 4 teams in the knockout stage will qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup as AFC representatives.

### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 25 June – Pathum Thani | 25 June – Pathum Thani | | | |
| Thailand | 1 | | | |
| Thailand | 1 | 29 June – Pathum Thani | 29 June – Pathum Thani | | |
| South Korea | 4 | 29 June – Pathum Thani | 29 June – Pathum Thani | |
| South Korea | 4 | South Korea | 1 | |
| 26 June – Thammasat | 26 June – Thammasat | | South Korea | 1 | |
| 26 June – Thammasat | 26 June – Thammasat | Uzbekistan | 0 | |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | Uzbekistan | 0 | |
| Saudi Arabia | 0 | | | | 2 July – Pathum Thani | 2 July – Pathum Thani |
| Uzbekistan | 2 | | | | 2 July – Pathum Thani | 2 July – Pathum Thani |
| Uzbekistan | 2 | | | | South Korea | 0 |
| 25 June – Thammasat | 25 June – Thammasat | | | | | South Korea | 0 |
| 25 June – Thammasat | 25 June – Thammasat | | | | Japan | 3 |
| Iran (p) | 0 (4) | | | | Japan | 3 |
| Iran (p) | 0 (4) | 29 June – Thammasat | 29 June – Thammasat | | | |
| Yemen | 0 (2) | 29 June – Thammasat | 29 June – Thammasat | | | |
| Yemen | 0 (2) | Iran | 0 | | | |
| 26 June – Pathum Thani | 26 June – Pathum Thani | | Iran | 0 | | | |
| 26 June – Pathum Thani | 26 June – Pathum Thani | Japan | 3 | |
| Japan | 3 | Japan | 3 | |
| Australia | 1 | | | |

### Quarter-finals

Winners were qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

### Final
## Winners

* 2023 AFC U-17 Championship Champions
* Japan Fourth title

## Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
| Top Goalscorer | Most Valuable Player | Best Goalkeeper | Fair Play award |
| Gaku Nawata | Gaku Nawata | Wataru Goto | Japan |

## Goalscorers

There were 99 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 3.19 goals per match.
5 goals
* Gaku Nawata
4 goals
* Kohei Mochizuki
* Yutaka Michiwaki
* Kim Myung-jun
* Yun Do-young
3 goals
* Nestory Irankunda
* Wang Yudong
* Baek In-woo
2 goals
* Habibullah Hotak
* Nathan Amanatidis
* Esmaeil Gholizadeh
* Kasra Taheri
* Ryunosuke Sato
* Dainei Disa
* Nawaf Al-Bishri
* Talal Haji
* Dutsadee Buranajutanon
* Chanothai Kongmeng
* Adel Abbas
* Anwar Al Turaiqi
1 goal
* Hakim Niazi
* Daniel Bennie
* Giovanni De Abreu
* Mitchell Glasson
* Kuai Jiwen
* Danny Metei
* Mukul Panwar
* Korou Singh
* Malemngamba Singh
* Nima Andarz
* Reza Ghandipour
* Hesam Nafari
* Mahan Sadeghi
* Gakuto Kawamura
* Shuto Nagano
* Yotaro Nakajima
* Shungo Sugiura
* Rento Takaoka
* Ryonusuke Yada
* Gota Yamaguchi
* Sayfon Keohanam
* Phousomboun Panyavong
* Peter Phanthavong
* Khalid Al-Shaaibi
* Nasser Babiker
* Nawaf Al-Jaadani
* Mohammed Al-Muwallad
* Ammar Al-Yahebi
* Kang Min-woo
* Kim Hyun-min
* Lim Hyun-sub
* Masrur Gafurov
* Chanasorn Choklap
* Pacharaphol Lekkun
* Tanakrit Lomnak
* Dilshod Abdullaev
* Mukhammadali Reimov
* Amir Saidov
* Shodiyor Shodiboev
* Lê Đình Long Vũ
* Abdulrahman Al Khader
1 own goal
* Mansoor Noorzai (against South Korea)
* Daiki Miyagawa (against India)
* Adib Ibrahim (against Yemen)
* Mahmoud Essa Al-Burayah (against Uzbekistan)

## Qualified teams for FIFA U-17 World Cup

The following five teams from AFC qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-17 World Cup, including Indonesia who qualified automatically as host.
| Team | Qualified on | Previous appearances in FIFA U-17 World Cup |
| Indonesia | 23 June 2023 | 0 (debut) |
| Iran | 25 June 2023 | 4 (2001, 2009, 2013, 2017) |
| South Korea | 25 June 2023 | 6 (1987, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2015, 2019) |
| Japan | 26 June 2023 | 9 (1993, 1995, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2019) |
| Uzbekistan | 26 June 2023 | 2 (2011, 2013) |
    $^1$ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.