Ali Thameem
Maldives U20 National Football Team has departed for Yangon, Myanmar, to compete in the Development Phase of the AFC U20 Asian Cup Qualifiers.
Maldives is grouped with hosts Myanmar, Brunei and Sri Lanka. The single round-robin stage will see Maldives take on Brunei this Monday night. Games against Sri Lanka and Myanmar are scheduled for 3rd and 6th September, respectively.
The national team, head coached by Ahmed Shakir alongside assistant coach Ibrahim Saeedh (Kaka), is deemed “the most promising junior national team in recent years”, according to Shakir via PSM News. Shakir said it is an advantage to have selected an in-form squad on the back of the Cup Winners Cup, in which many of the junior players have played.
With AFC having restructured the format of the Qualifiers for this year – dividing it to Qualification Phase and Development Phase. Maldives is among 12 teams competing in the three groups of the lower phase – the Development Phase.
The qualifying format is designed for just the 32 countries competing in the Qualification Phase to qualify for the final tournament – the 2027 AFC U-20 Asian Cup in China.
The twelve countries competing in the Development Phase, will instead have the chance to be promoted to the 2029 AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualification phase, which will take place in 2028. In order to be promoted for that, Maldives needs to finish in either first or second-place in the group in this Development Phase.
