AFC to scrap AFC Challenge Cup; Asian Cup to be expanded

AFC Executive Committee has approved a proposal to increase the number of teams from 16 to 24 in the AFC Asian Cup on Wednesday.

DPR Korea were winner of AFC CHallenge Cup 2012 edition held in Nepal.

AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim AL Khalifa was the chairman of the committee which also decided to remove AFC Challenge cup from the AFC Competitions meaning the AFC Challenge Cup being held from May 19 to 30 this year will be last edition of the competition.

The committee also ratified the proposal set by AFC Competitions Committee to merge the preliminary qualifications rounds for FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup. However, the final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers will be separated.

The preliminary round will consist of eight groups and the group winners will march onto the next round along with four second best teams among the groups. The next round means both the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup finals. This means the no. of teams to play FIFA World Cup qualifiers will now increase from 10 to 12.

The remaining 24 teams from the preliminary stages then will vie for the remaining spots in AFC Asian Cup which will be divided into six groups with four teams each. However, these teams will not be eligible to play FIFA World Cup qualifiers.