DUSHANBE, June 10, Asia-Plus — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on June 9 completed the draw for the AFC Challenge Cup 2008 final round in Haidarabad, India, according to the AFC official website.
Eight teams were drawn into two groups. Tajikistan was seeded in one group with Afghanistan, India (hosts) and Turkmenistan. Korea DPR, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri-Lanka are playing in Group B.
The 2008 AFC Challenge Cup football tournament will be hosted by India from July 30 to August 10, 2008. Chinese Taipei was the designated host, but could not guarantee it would meet the AFC’s standards for hosting the tournament. The winners of the 2008 and 2010 competitions will qualify for the Asian Cup 2011. This competition is exclusive to the lower ranking Asian nations. However, India and Bangladesh have again been invited for the 2008 tournament from the middle tier of nations, along with North Korea and Laos.
The AFC Challenge Cup is a national football competition for emerging countries (those in the lowest (of three) categories as designed by the AFC president) that are members of the AFC. The first tournament was held in 2006 in Bangladesh.
