The AFC, through its Competitions Committee and Exectuive Committee, has provisionally approved the offer of the All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) to host the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup last week. ANFA beat out the Maldives and Palestine to have the chance to host this biennal event. Interestingly, the previous three editions of this competition took place in the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh in 2006, India in 2008, Sri Lanka in 2010). Of course, the ANFA needs to follow the official criteria set by the AFC.
The AFC Challenge Cup is a competition geared for the emerging member associations of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This edition, scheduled on March 3-18, will have the following countries as participants; Palestine, The Philippines, India, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Tajikistan, North Korea and Nepal. The winner will qualify for the 2015 Asian Cup that will held in Australia, where they will face Asian powerhouses such as Japan, South Korea and Australia to name a few.
If you recall, in order to qualify for the finals, the Azkals played the games in Myanmar, where they beat Bangladesh 3-0 after battling the host country Myanmar and Palestine to draws 1-1 and 0-0 respectively. This competition also served as the international debuts for AGF's Jerry Lucena and Angel Guirado (then of Club Deportivo Ronda), as well as Kaya FC's Yannick Tuason and Global Smartmatic's William Guerridon. It also turned out to be the final competition for Air Force Rider's Yanti Barsales, as he later announced his retirement from international football in a brief conversation with Roy Moore when after they clinched the UFL season earlier this June.
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