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 was renounced the rights to host, and the AFC is now seeking to finalise a plan to get teams to compete. But Australia has not shown interest, for if the country agrees to host it, it means they have to rescind their withdrawal, for their Anglo pride being too big. Kuwait is posed as another host, but the Kuwaiti football climate is being paralysed by infighting in the federation, even though it has now had a new sport law. India has a conflicting schedule for 2022 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup and has just recently survived a nightmarish ban by FIFA for government interference, so it can't guarantee to host it. So now, the group H has become the most troubled: withdrawal to hostless.

Such issues are not new when it comes to previous political concerns. Yet the AFC has been ineffective in providing a passage to deal with the problem. It knew Iraq has a political turmoil, but it could not get thing done and thus created a trouble with the qualifier by causing the withdrawal of Australia. Yet when it sought replacement hosts, no one had their will to go. By now, the group H remains the only group to be unable to start at scheduled time.

What could it do? To be frank, I think Australia should be taken the chance to host it so we could get rid of a problem. Australia has no scheduling conflict, and even though it has earlier withdrawn, but considering the circumstances, an Australian team can still compete if necessary, though this means they have to rescind their withdrawal. Given India or Kuwait's ability to host depend on internal scramble, it's better to let Australia do the deed.

If the AFC just could not find the way to solve it again, then it was better to disband the group and select team by AFC coefficient, but this would be the last resort one, an unlikely attempt to do so.

Unfortunately, this is not a separate incident. Back in the 2018 U-16 Asian Cup qualifiers, after Qatar was designated hosts of the group that had the UAE, Yemen and Bangladesh, the former chose not to take part due to the blockade of Qatar. After the shooting of a Ukrainian plane in Iranian sky on 2020, Iran was banned from hosting Champions League's games, but the AFC almost relented due to Iranian threat to withdraw, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to force Iran to reconsider. In the 2019 AFC Cup, after the North Korean government refused access in the semi-finals against Hanoi FC, the AFC barred North Korea from hosting the final.

History of corruption and mismanagement by the AFC have made Asia one of the least exposed in world's football, despite the AFC has a rich history indeed. Unless the AFC takes the matter seriously, more problems shall occur, and the AFC will never grow up. Under the current AFC President Salman bin Khalifa of the Al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain, the AFC has regressed dearly. If we want to grow again, this is up for us to address the concerns. Persuading Australia to return to the U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers, probably, is now a priority.

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