KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Friday said it will review the qualification process for the finals of the under-17 and under-20 youth football championships to prevent a deterioration of Asian football.

Peter Velappan, AFC secretary-general, lamented that there were weak teams in the finals of both the just concluded tournaments, adding: “This is not good for the tournaments or the image of Asian football.” Velappan did not name the teams.

“It has always been our objective that the weakest team in the finals is not any weaker than any of those who did not qualify,” he said in a statement.

Velappan said this was evidently not the case and the AFC needed to ensure that both the tournaments are of a “consistently high level” in terms of teams performance during finals.

The Asian football supremo also criticised the poor spectator turn-out at the AFC under-17 tournament in UAE in September and at the under-20 Championship in Qatar last week.

Velappan warned that the AFC would not award tournaments to countries that were unable to draw fans to matches and that it was “pointless for teams that had prepared long and hard to play in near empty stadiums.”

“Qatar and the UAE have been disappointing. The fans must change their attitude or not see any Asian level football tournaments in their countries,” he said.

Velappan also pressed the five Asian qualifiers for the FIFA World Youth under-20 Championships to get cracking on their final stage of preparations.

The tournament will be held in the United Arab Emirates next March and involve hosts UAE, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Korea.—AFP