Doha: Hosts Qatar are fully focused on grabbing a slice of continental glory at the upcoming AFC U23 Championship, and with it a place at this year’s Olympic Games in Brazil.
The top-three finishers in the tournament, to be played from January 12 to 30, will book a berth at the Rio Summer Games.
With the eagerly anticipated U23 event – and a potential trip to South America – in mind, Qatar replaced coach Fahad Thani with Felix Sanchez last year.
The Spaniard, who guided the nation’s U-19 team to the AFC Championship title in Myanmar in 2014, has subsequently brought talented players such as Akram Afif and 2014 AFC Young Player of the Year Ahmad Moein from that group in a bid to rebuild the Olympic team.
In another sign of Qatar’s U23 intent, Sanchez also named proven Qatar internationals Ahmed Yasser, Ali Asad, Abdelkarim Hassan and Mohammed Muntari in his 23-man squad.
Qatar National Teams Management Executive Director Mansoor Al Ansari underlined the priority was to do well at the competition.
“We’re always focused on the task on hand. Of course, a few of the players might go on to make it to the World Cup team in ’22, but it is six years away. We’re thinking more about doing well in the Asian competition and booking a berth at the Rio Olympics,” said Al Ansari, who is also the CEO of the Qatar Local Organising Committee of the tournament.
The Qatar Football Association also supported the team by making it mandatory for the 14 participating Qatar Stars League clubs to have an U23 player in their playing eleven throughout this season. Sanchez’s charges have also held several training camps both at home and abroad in an effort to fine tune preparations.
The organisational acumen of Qatar will be on show once again following a stellar hosting of the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, the AFC U23 Championship hosts will be hoping another successful running of a major tournament is mirrored by the performance of the home team on the pitch. And Qatar fans have every reason to be confident of a strong showing on home soil with a side that could not only feature a number of players who already have experience with the senior national team that recently qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, but also see the step up of some young stars who were part of the team that won the AFC U-19 Championship in 2014.
Among those in the squad are Moein, MVP as the Qataris claimed their first youth title since winning the 1990 AFC U-16 Championship, and Afif, scorer of four goals at the under 19s in Myanmar, including the winner against DPR Korea in the final.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s defence will be well-marshalled by the vastly experienced Abdelkarim Hassan, who was part of Al Sadd’s 2011 AFC Champions League-winning squad, then aged just 17, and has already amassed over 40 caps for the senior team.
For the U23 Championship, Qatar are drawn in Group A, alongside Syria, Iran and China, who are their opponents on January 12.
Meanwhile, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) has launched its promotional activities of engaging schoolchildren ahead of the AFC U23 Championship.
‘Najim’, the official event mascot, visited Pakistani, British, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan schools in Qatar.
Large crowds gathered during the LOC visits to the schools which saw schoolchildren mingling with football officials and having their photos taken with ‘Najim’.
LOC officials said more schools are on the list in the coming days. They also distributed literature detailing the event schedule and venues. The Peninsula
