Olympic team to wrap up qualifiers preparations

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s under-23 Olympic football team wrap up their preparations today for their Group D qualifying campaign for berth in the AFC U23 Asian Cup 2024.

The Bahrainis kick off their bid tomorrow when they take on their counterparts from Palestine at 6.30pm at Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Stadium at Muharraq Club in Arad.

The nationals and Palestinians are in the same group as Pakistan and Japan, who clash in tomorrow night’s late fixture scheduled for a 9.30pm kick-off at the same venue.

Today, the official pre-tournament technical meeting will take place. There are 11 groups in all in the AFC U23 Asian Cup 2024 qualifiers, with each group being held at a centralised venue.

Following a single round-robin, the 11 group winners and four best second-placed teams qualify for next year’s competition, which will be held in Doha.

They join hosts Qatar, who have received automatic qualification, to form a cast of 16.

The tournament is scheduled to be played between 15 April and 3 May, 2024. Bahrain have qualified just once in the previous five editions of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

That was in the 2020 event held in Thailand, where they did not make it past the group stage.