2020 AFC Futsal Championship

2020 AFC Futsal Championship
بطولة آسيا لكرة الصالات 2020
Tournament details
Host countryTurkmenistan (original host)
Kuwait (new host)
DatesCancelled[1]
Teams16 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)2 (in 1 host city)
← 2018
2022 →

The 2020 AFC Futsal Championship would have been the 16th edition of the AFC Futsal Championship, the biennial international futsal championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's national teams of Asia. A total of 16 teams would have taken part in the tournament.

The tournament was originally scheduled to be played in Turkmenistan between 26 February and 8 March 2020.[2][3] However, the AFC announced on 3 February 2020 that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament had been postponed following consultation with all relevant stakeholders.[4] On 9 March 2020, FIFA and AFC announced that the tournament were postponed to 5–16 August 2020,[5][6] but in July 2020, the tournament schedule was moved again to 4–15 November 2020.[7][8][9] On 10 September 2020, the AFC announced that the tournament would instead be held in Kuwait between 2–13 December 2020.[10] On 15 October 2020, the AFC announced that due to spike of COVID-19 cases in Kuwait, the tournament was further postponed to 2021.[11] On 10 November 2020, the AFC approved the new dates as between 23 March and 3 April 2021.[12] However, AFC announced the cancellation of the tournament on 25 January 2021, leaving the hosting rights for the 2022 AFC Futsal Asian Cup with Kuwait.[1]

Same as previous editions held on the same year as the FIFA Futsal World Cup, the tournament would have acted as the AFC qualifiers for the World Cup. The top five teams of the tournament would have qualified for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup (originally 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic) in Lithuania as the AFC representatives.[13][14][15] On 21 April 2021, the AFC announced that Iran, Japan, and Uzbekistan were nominated as the AFC representatives, while the remaining two teams to be determined by play-off matches between Iraq (although Iraq had not qualified for the 2020 AFC Futsal Championship), Lebanon, Thailand, and Vietnam.[16]

Iran were the defending champions.

  1. ^ a b "Latest update on AFC Competitions in 2021". Asian Football Confederation official website. 25 January 2021.
  2. ^ "AFC Competitions Calendar 2020". AFC. 28 February 2018. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Президент Туркменистана утвердил состав Оргкомитета по проведению в Ашхабаде чемпионата Азии по футзалу" (in Russian). Turkmenportal. 6 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  4. ^ "AFC Futsal Championship Turkmenistan 2020 postponed". AFC. 3 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Update on upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers". FIFA.com. 9 March 2020.
  6. ^ "Update on upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers". AFC. 9 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Robert Grdovic talks about postponed AFC Futsal Championship and predicts the outcome". futsallfeed.com. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  8. ^ turkmenportal. "AFC moved the Asian Futsal championship in Ashgabat to November | Sport". Turkmenistan, an Internet portal on cultural, business and entertainment life in Turkmenistan. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
  9. ^ "AFC reiterates commitment to complete 2020 competitions with new calendar". AFC. 9 July 2020.
  10. ^ "AFC Executive Committee announces updates to 2020 competitions calendar". AFC. 10 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Latest update on AFC Futsal Championship and AFC U23 Asian Cup". AFC. 15 October 2020.
  12. ^ "AFC Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee approves new competition dates". AFC. 10 November 2020.
  13. ^ "FIFA Futsal World Cup 2020 – slot allocation" (PDF). FIFA.com. 14 June 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 July 2021.
  14. ^ "Bureau of the FIFA Council decisions on FIFA events". FIFA.com. Fédération Internationale de Football Association. 12 May 2020.
  15. ^ ""الآسيوي" يبلغ الاتحاد اللبناني بمواعيد بطولاته الجديدة" (in Arabic). Lebanese Football Association. 15 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  16. ^ "Latest update on AFC representatives for upcoming FIFA competitions". the-AFC.com. AFC. 21 April 2021.