LAHORE, March 10: Iraq and North Korea will not be able to field their teams in the 13th AFC U-16 Championship 2008 as they fielded ineligible players in the last year’s qualifiers at Dammam and Singapore respectively.

Saudi Arabia and Malaysia will replace them for this year’s tournament, scheduled to be held in Uzbekistan.

“Saudi Arabia will take part in the competition instead of Iraq who were disqualified by the AFC Disciplinary Committee and subsequently lost their appeal for fielding an ineligible player in the qualifiers last November where they finished top of Group C,” disclosed PFF chief Faisal Saleh Hayat, who is a member of the AFC disciplinary committee.

Similarly, Malaysia have now qualified for the finals instead of North Korea who were found guilty by the AFC Disciplinary Committee for fielding an overaged player Singapore qualifiers last October.

North Koreans, who did not appeal against the decision, topped Group G while Australia came second and Malaysia were third.

The 13th edition of AFC U-16 Championship will be held in Uzbekistan from Oct 4 to 19.

The revised list of qualified teams comprises Syria, Yemen, Iran, Bahrain, India, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, China, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, South Korea.—Agencies