From withdrawal to hostless - the paralysed story of the group H of 2023 U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers.
On 26 August 2022, a few weeks before the start of the U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers for the tournament in Uzbekistan 2023, AFC received a blowing shock: Australia, one of Asia's major football powers, renounced the rights to compete and would not send team to play. Despite plead by the AFC, the Australians refused to follow, for the Australians to rather abandon the U-20 World Cup instead of travelling. The reason? Iraq was the host. At the time of Australia's withdrawal, the Aussies repeatedly stated about insecurity in Iraq, notably due to unrest and violent protests related to Iraq's political climate. The Iraqis have not had a representative government, and still not by now. Australian reason was not unfounded, but the AFC was slow to address. Subsequently, Australia withdrew, causing the qualification in the whole turmoil, for now Australia's group only had three teams to compete: Iraq, Kuwait and India. Just a week later, the group H could not begin as expected. Iraq