The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has taken note of the DPR Korea Football Association’s withdrawal from the qualifying competitions of both the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022™ and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022.

Consequently, the variance in the number of teams across the different groups of the AFC U23 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2022™ Qualifiers East Zone has now reached more than one, with just Japan and Cambodia the remaining teams in Group K, as a result of DPR Korea’s withdrawal.

Therefore, in order to maintain the balance of the number of teams across all groups, the AFC will conduct a draw to move one team from Groups G to J, to be placed in Group K, to be conducted virtually on Wednesday, August 11, 2021.

The draw will consist of one pot comprising all teams from Groups G to J, except the teams in position 1 of their respective Groups and the Host Teams in order not to affect the group balance and hosting arrangements already in place following the draw conducted on July 9, 2021.

Accordingly, the following eight teams will be involved in the draw: Group G: China PR and Brunei Darussalam, Group H: Timor-Leste and Philippines, Group I: Myanmar and Hong Kong and Group J: Malaysia and Laos.

The first team drawn will be moved to position 1 in Group K to replace DPR Korea. As a result, Group K will have three teams and one group from G to J will be reduced from four to three teams.

The draw results of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022™ – Qualifiers conducted on June 24, 2021, remains unchanged with Group C now comprising three teams – Indonesia, Iraq and Singapore, following DPR Korea’s withdrawal.