The 2012 U-19 Asian Football Championship (officially: AFC U-19 Championship 2012 ) is the 37th edition of the tournament and was held in the United Arab Emirates from November 3rd to 17th . At the same time, the finals served as a qualification for the U-20 World Cup in Turkey in 2013 .
By June 2011, the associations of Bangladesh, Iran, Palestine, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates had expressed their interest in hosting the tournament. On November 23, 2011, the Asian Association announced that the final round would take place in the United Arab Emirates. The country will host this event for the third time after 1985 and 1992.
Of the 46 member associations of the AFC, 39 registered to take part. The teams were divided according to their geographical location into the West Group, consisting of West, Central and South Asia, and the East Group, consisting of Southeast and East Asia and Australia. During the draw, the teams were divided into four groups of six teams each and three groups of five teams.
The qualification was played between October and November 2011, the first two of the group qualified. In addition, the best third group from the western and eastern groups came.
The group draw took place on May 13, 2012 in Dubai . The hosts were set as the group head of the first group, the remaining teams were distributed over the four pots according to their results at the last edition.
Lottery pot 1: UAE, North Korea, Australia, South Korea
Lottery pot 2: Saudi Arabia, Japan, Uzbekistan, China
Lottery pot 3: Syria, Iran, Vietnam, Thailand
Lottery pot 4: Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait
The draw resulted in the following group allocation:
The competition consisted of a qualifying round played in the championship mode with home and return matches, as well as the final round played in a group phase and the finals.
In the final round, the sixteen participants formed four preliminary round groups with four teams each, of which the first two qualified for the quarter-finals. In the group stage, each team played against every other team in its group according to the championship mode, with three points being awarded for a win and one point for a draw. If several teams were tied in the group games, first the goal difference, then the number of goals scored from the direct encounters, decided on the placement. Then the goal difference and the number of goals scored in all group matches were used.
From the quarter-finals, the tournament continued in the semi-finals and finals in the knockout system , with the winner of a game qualifying for the next round. If a game ended in a draw after the end of normal playing time, it was extended by 15 minutes twice. If no decision was made after extra time, the winner of the match was determined on penalties. The four best teams in the tournament will also qualify for the 2013 U-20 World Cup in Turkey .
South Korea (12th title)
United Arab Emirates
Igor Sergeev (7 goals)
Muhannad Abdul-Rahim
North Korea
Australia
Japan
People's Republic of China
Saudi Arabia
Iran
Thailand
Vietnam
Syria
Kuwait
Jordan
Qatar