At high noon on May 24, 2023, a grand draw kicked off at the AFC Bahrain U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers. With the completion of the draw, China's U17 National Junior Team was placed in a highly competitive Group G alongside a strong Australia and Northern Mariana Islands. This annual AFC U17 Asia Cup qualifier has attracted 44 soccer teams from across Asia, with North Korea and Macau, China failing to register, while the Pakistan Football Association (PFA) is absent due to a FIFA ban. The tournament has been divided into 10 groups, four of which boast five teams while the remaining six groups have four teams each. According to the rankings of the 2018 AFC U16 Championship, China has been placed in the second tier, while the qualifiers do not have East and West Asian divisions, reflecting the principle of fair play. Bahrain, as the hosts, have already locked up a spot in the final round in advance, so they were not counted in the qualifiers and were placed in the fifth slot. The host member associations for the qualifier include Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The 44 teams were categorized into five bands according to their strengths and the distribution of the bands is as follows: - Tier 1: Japan, Tajikistan (hosts), South Korea, Australia (hosts), Indonesia (hosts), Oman (hosts), India, Iran, Yemen, Thailand; - Second tier: Iraq, Malaysia, Jordan (host), Vietnam (host), Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia (host), Bangladesh (host), China, Hong Kong, China, Brunei; - Third slot: Uzbekistan (host), Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan (host), Timor-Leste, Qatar, Palestine, Cambodia, Syria, Singapore, Chinese Taipei; - Fourth slot: Nepal, Lebanon, Laos, Philippines, Mongolia, Maldives, Guam, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Northern Mariana Islands; - Tranche 5: Kuwait, Turkmenistan, UAE, Bahrain (hosts of the final stage). After the draw, the teams for each group have been finalized and are listed below: - Group A: Japan, Jordan (hosts), Syria, Philippines, Turkmenistan; - Group B: Indonesia (hosts), Malaysia, Palestine, Guam, UAE; - Group C: Oman (hosts), Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, Bahrain (hosts of the final stage); - Group D: India, Saudi Arabia (hosts), Myanmar, Maldives, Kuwait; - Group E: Yemen, Bangladesh (hosts), Singapore, Bhutan; - Group F: Thailand, Vietnam (hosts), Chinese Taipei, Nepal; - Group G: Australia (hosts), China, Cambodia, Northern Mariana Islands; - Group H: Tajikistan (hosts), Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, Mongolia; - Group I: Iran, Hong Kong, China, Kyrgyzstan (host), Laos; - Group J: Korea, Brunei, Uzbekistan (host), Sri Lanka. The 2023 AFC U17 Asian Cup Qualifiers will be held from October 1-9, 2022, with the first place finishers of the 10 groups and the second place finishers of the five best-performing groups advancing to the main round. Together with the hosts, a total of 16 teams will take part in the final stage of the tournament, which will be held in Bahrain from the end of March to mid-April. When comparing group second-place finishes, the four second-place finishes in groups with five teams will not be counted in the results of matches against the fifth-place team in the same group. China's 2006 age group National Junior Team, led by Yang Chen, will participate in this exciting event.
