Malaysia to host AFC’s inaugural Solidarity Cup

AFC Solidarity Cup Promo:

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced that Malaysia will host the the inaugural AFC Solidarity Cup, a new tournament for emerging national teams.

The decision was announced during the draw which was held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday, which will see nine national teams separated into two groups.

The tournament will take place from 2 to 15 Novermber 2016, however the venues have not been announced.

Nepal is pooled along with Pakistan and Brunei. Additional two teams are likely to join the group which will be finalized on October 11. One among Timor Leste or Chinese Taipei and among Bhutan or Bangladesh will join the group.

Group A will feature Nepal, Pakistan, Brunei, Timor Leste/Chinese Taipei and Bhutan/Bangladesh.

Similarly, the group B consists of Sri Lanka, Macau, Mongolia and Maldives/Laos.

The participants of the tournament are countries that will not feature in the later stages of the AFC World Cup qualification, or the Asian Cup qualification, “who have little opportunity to organise international friendly matches”, according to an earlier statement by AFC.

But apart from competing, the tournament will also focus on the developmental side of the sport, according to AFC’s statement.

The Solidarity Cup has been formed following the disbandment of the AFC Challenge Cup, which ran from 2006 and 2014 and served as the main national team tournament for lower-ranked Asian countries.

“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 Khalifa said. “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. As individual teams improve and the level of competition gets tougher, the opposition is stronger and all competing teams benefit.

“The AFC Solidarity Cup will give teams the opportunity to play competitive international matches when they are not participating in other Fifa or AFC national team competitions.”

Various development opportunities will be made available to member associations over the course of the two-week event.

“What makes the AFC Solidarity Cup so special is the educational elements it offers to the participants,” Sheikh Salman (pictured) added. “These include training and information-sharing in areas such as coaching, referees and technical analysis. Also event management training will be offered to MAs who hold aspirations to host international tournaments in the future.”