The 2012 AFC Challenge Cup

AFC Challenge Cup

The AFC Challenge Cup is an international football competition for emerging nations that are members of the Asian Football Confederation. The first tournament was hosted by Bangladesh in 2006...

will be the fourth edition of the tournament which will take place in Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 from 8–19 March 2012. The winners will qualify for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup

2015 AFC Asian Cup

The 2015 AFC Asian Cup will be the 16th edition of the AFC Asian Cup. The finals will be hosted by Australia and held from the 4 to 26 January 2015.-Host selection:...

. Unlike in previous editions of the tournament, there were no automatic qualifiers. Therefore, 2010

2010 AFC Challenge Cup

The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup was the third edition of the tournament which was held from 16–27 February 2010 in Sri Lanka. India, the defending champions, fielded their under-23 team for this tournament in preparation for the 2010 Asian Games later that year...

 champions North Korea, runners-up Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan national football team

The Turkmenistan national football team is the national team of Turkmenistan and is controlled by the Football Federation of Turkmenistan.-History:After the country gained independence, they played their first match against Kazakhstan on June 1, 1992...

, and third-placed Tajikistan

Tajikistan national football team

The Tajikistan national football team represents Tajikistan in association football and is controlled by the Tajikistan National Football Federation, the governing body for football in Tajikistan. Tajikistan's home ground is Pamir Stadium in Dushanbe....

 had to navigate the qualification phase in order to return to the finals.

Hosts

Maldives

Maldives

The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...

, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, and Palestine

Palestinian territories

The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...

 expressed an interest to bid to host the tournament. A decision on which country would be hosts was set to be made by the Asian Football Confederation

Asian Football Confederation

The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football in Asia. It has 46 member countries, mostly located on the Asian continent. However, due to the disputed boundary of Europe and Asia, nations such as Russia and Turkey which are located mostly in geographic Asia are...

 (AFC) on 14 June 2011, but was deferred until the AFC Executive Committee on 29 July 2011. The committee decided to endorse Nepal as the hosts of the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Finals.

Qualification

The qualification stage saw 20 eligible member associations compete in qualifiers.

• An initial pre-qualifying round (home and away) narrowed the field to 16 teams.
• The final qualifying round consist of four groups of four teams each with the group winners and runners-up qualifying.
• Only the eight teams that qualified for the tournament finals can bid to host the Finals.

Qualified nations

– Qualification Group A winners – Qualification Group A runners-up – Qualification Group B winners – Qualification Group B runners-up – Qualification Group C winners – Qualification Group C runners-up – Qualification Group D winners – Qualification Group D runners-up

Draw

The draw for the final tournament was held on 1 December 2011 at the Soaltee Crown Plaza Hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

.

Group stage

All times are Nepal Time

Nepal Time

Nepal Standard Time is the time zone for Nepal, with a time offset from Coordinated Universal Time of +05:45. Nepal Standard Time, is one of only two official time zones with a 45-minute increment from UTC. The Chatham Islands, which uses Chatham Island Standard Time also has a 45-minute...

 (NPT) - UTC+5:45

UTC+5:45

UTC+05:45 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +05:45. This time is used in:-As standard time :*Nepal - since 1986This is an approximation of Kathmandu mean time, which is 5:41:16 ahead of UTC....

Key to colours in group tables
Top two placed teams advance to the semi-finals
Third and fourth placed teams are eliminated

Group A

Team
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Group B

Team
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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Semi-finals

Third place play-off

Final

External links

• AFC Challenge Cup