AFC - The IR Iran Football Federation (IRIFF) has pledged to achieve success in hosting the AFC U-16 Championship 2012 which will take place in September and October.
Its President Ali Kaffashian (pic) has said that federation is happy to host the continental youth event and pledged that the main work for the competition will start right away.
"We are really glad to host this tournament and IRIFF will hold the tournament with all its power,” said Kaffasian during a draw ceremony for the 16 participating nations in the host city of Tehran on Thursday.
"Organising this great event will also further strengthen the relationship between the AFC and IRIFF and show that both can successfully organise this event.
"We have held many meetings to organise the best conditions for the matches and for the success of the tournament, we are fully ready to follow all the requirements and instructions from AFC.
"The main work of IRIFF will start after the draw ceremony and we hope to solve many issues as soon as possible. We will do our best to make the venue suitable so that the participants leave Iran with good memories.”
The 16 participating nations were drawn into four groups for the group stage which will take place on September 22-27, after which, the top two teams from each group (eight teams in total) will qualify for the quarterfinals (September 30), from which the four winners will play in the semi-finals (October 3) and the winners advance to the final (October 6).
The participating nations are hosts Iran, Australia, DPR Korea, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Japan, Syria, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, China PR, Laos, Thailand, Korea Republic and India.
Japan friendly in Iran's plan
Iran, the champions in the 2008 edition, were drawn into Group A with Kuwait, Yemen and Laos while two-time champions Japan were drawn into Group C, an all-champions group that puts the East Asians side-by-side with DPR Korea, Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia, during an official draw in the host city of Tehran on Thursday.
“It is true that we are happy with the draw result,” said Parhizkar during an interview after the draw.
“But we have to remember that all the teams in this tournament qualified from a hard competition. It means that every team are strong enough and the gaps between the teams are not really big.
“So we have to be very careful even if we play underdog,” added Parhizkar.
The Iranian youths have been training for the biggest part of every month and apart from the July friendly against 1994 and 2006 champions Japan, more matches are in the pipeline to tune the team up not only for the continental youth title but also the U-17 World Cup.
“We have been training for about 20 days every month for the tournament,” said Parhizkar.
“We will have a friendly match with Japan in July and will have more matches to play. Our aim is not only winning the Asian title but also becoming the world champions.”
The current AFC U-16 championship is the qualification platform for the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup which will be hosted by the UAE.
Semi-finalists in the last U-16 edition -- Japan, Australia, DPR Korea and Uzbekistan -- were the Asian representatives in the 2011 U-17 World Cup in Mexico.