HOST: Bahrain

DESCRIPTION:
*     This will be the 19th edition of the AFC U-16 Championship, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the mens under-16 national teams of Asia.
*     A total of 16 teams, including India, will play in the tournament and the top four finishers will qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup Peru 2021.
*     Teams have been placed in four groups and top two teams of each group will advance to the quarter-finals after group league.
*     Japan are the defending champions.
*     Qualifying was played from 14 to 22 September, 2019.
*     This edition will be the last to be played as an under-16 tournament, as the AFC has proposed switching the tournament from under-16 to under-17 starting from 2023.
*     India qualified for the U-16 Finals when they finished as Group B champions in Tashkent from a group which had Uzbekistan (hosts), Bahrain and Turkmenistan.
*     The Indian colts finished with seven points from three matches scoring 11 goals, while conceding one.
*     This is third consecutive qualification for India in the AFC U-16 finals, and ninth overall.
*     Incidentally, the Indian colts had faced Uzbekistan in Tashkent in the qualifiers in 2019 where it had ended 1-1.
*     In the last edition in 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, the U-16 boys stayed a win away from a direct qualification into the FIFA U-17 World Cup when they lost to Korea Republic by a solitary goal in the quarterfinals.
*     That was second quarterfinals entry India, the earlier being in 2002.

GROUPINGS:
Group-A: Bahrain, DPR Korea, Iran, Qatar
Group-B: Tajikistan, Oman, Yeman, United Arab Emirets
Group-C: South Korea, Australia, India, Uzbekistan
Group-D: Japan, Indonesia, Saudia Arab, China

SCHEDULE (India and Knock-out matches):
26 November: India vs Australia
29 November: India vs South Korea
2 December: India vs Uzbekistan
5-6 December: Quarterfinals
9 December: Semifinals
12 December: Final