The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has announced the centralised venue for the AFC Cup 2022 group stage.
by competition It is divided into 5 zones, such as the Western Zone (Group A, B, C), South Asia (Group D), Central Asia (Group E, F), ASEAN (Group G, H, I) and East ( Group J)
Group A matches will be held in Muscat, Oman, where three-time winners Kuwait SC will battle Lebanon’s Al Ansar as well as Al Seeb Club from Oman and Jableh of Syria.
Group B will take centrestage in Kuwait City, featuring Al Riffa from Bahrain, Palestine’s Shabab Al Khalil, Dhofar Club of Oman and Kuwaiti side Arabi SC, while Manama, Bahrain, will host the matches in Group C, which consists of Syrian side Tishreen, Nejmeh from Lebanon, East Riffa of Bahrain and Palestine’s Hilal Al Quds.
Meanwhile, in the South Zone, Kolkata, India, will stage the matches in Group D, comprising Gokulam Kerala from India, Bangladesh’s Bashundhara Kings, Maziya Sports and Recreation of the Maldives along with the winner of a six-team South Asian contest in the Preliminary and Playoff Stages.
Dushanbe, Tajikistan, will host the Group E matches involving Turkmenistan’s Altyn Asyr, Kyrgyz Republic’s PFC Neftchi as well as tournament debutants FC CSKA from Tajikistan and either FC Nasaf or PFC Sogdiana from Uzbekistan.
Group F, meanwhile, will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, and will feature FC Khujand of Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic’s FC Dordoi and Kopetdag from Turkmenistan.
Denpasar, Indonesia, will provide the backdrop for the matches in Group G which features the likes of Indonesia’s Bali United, Kedah Darul Aman FC from Malaysia and Kaya FC-Iloilo from the Philippines, while Group H will be contested in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In the East Zone battles, Tainan, Chinese Taipei, will set the stage for the contenders in Group J, which include Hong Kong’s Eastern Long Lions, MUST CPK of Macau, Chinese Taipei side Tainan City and either Hong Kong’s Lee Man or Athletic 220 from Mongolia.
The host venue for the centralised matches in Group I will be finalised and communicated in due course.
For the competition in the group stage The competition will be played in round-robin one round of 3 matches. The competition schedule is as follows.
Western Zone, South Asian zone : 18,21,24 May
Central Asia, ASEAN zone, Eastern Zone : 24,27,30 June
Credit Photo : Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Getty Images
