Qatar Football Association
Ahmed Al Abbasi, Executive Director of Competitions and Football Development at Qatar Stars League, participated as a representative of the Qatar Football Association in the fourth meeting of the AFC Competitions Committee, which was held on Thursday via video conference chaired by Dr Tran Quoc Tuan.
During the meeting, the Competitions Committee commended the determination and resilience shown by the AFC and its member national associations to ensure the resumption of the various Asian competitions during 2021.
The Committee noted the challenges caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time recognised the commitment of the Asian football family in enabling the AFC to remain on its path to deliver as many as six competitions in 2021, in addition to the commencement of the Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar™, which is a significant improvement from 2020 when the outbreak restricted the AFC to staging just two competitions.
At the same time, the Committee acknowledged and sympathised with several Participating Member Associations and Clubs, who, despite their best efforts, were unable to compete in the AFC’s competitions in 2021 due to the vast uncertainties and travel restrictions caused by the pandemic.
Therefore, the Committee recognised that the withdrawals of the Australian clubs – Brisbane Roar, Melbourne FC and Sydney FC – from the AFC Champions League 2021 constituted as events of Force Majeure.
Likewise, in the AFC Cup, the withdrawals of the two clubs from Macau – MUST CPK and Benfica Macau – were also recognised as events of Force Majeure, as were the withdrawals of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, China PR, DPR Korea and Macau from the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022™ – Qualifiers.
The Committee approved the adoption of imposing a minimum age in addition to the upper age limit in the AFC U-20 and U-17 Asian Cups, starting from the 2023 edition, after taking into account ensuring compatibility with the age-group tournaments in the International Football Association, as well as protecting the health of Young players in Asia, and give enough opportunities for young players.
Meanwhile, the Committee also approved to set a lower age limit in addition to the existing upper age limit for the AFC U20 and U17 Asian Cups beginning from the 2023 edition, taking into consideration the need to ensure greater consistency with the respective FIFA age-group competitions, while protecting the wellbeing of Asia’s young players and at the same time, enabling sufficient playing opportunities.
Therefore, it was agreed that the age eligibility for the AFC U20 Asian Cup 2023 will be for players born on or after January 1 2003 to those born on or before December 31 2007, while the eligibility for the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2023 will be for players born on or after January 1 2006 to those born on or before December 31 2008.
The International Football Association Board recommended that the Committee also extend the implementation of the temporary amendments to Law 3, which allows teams to use up to five substitutes in matches in all AFC Competitions to December 31, 2022.
The Committee also discussed several options regarding the current Foreign Player Quota for the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup. While the existing 3+1 quota will continue to apply for the 2022 seasons, the Committee agreed to remove the 3+1 ceiling on the number of Foreign Players allowed for the Preliminary Registration, paving the way for any number of Foreign Players to be registered based on the domestic registration rules.
Further, the maximum number of players in the Preliminary Registration was increased from 30 to 35.
All the decisions will need to be ratified by the AFC Executive Committee to take effect.