World Footy News

The all-important draw for the Asian Championships was made on Monday, 1st September at the Australian International School in Singapore.

The process saw last year's Grand Finalists Hong Kong and Bali first allocated separately to groups A and B. The remaining 8 teams were then randomly allocated into Groups A or B depending on balls drawn from a barrel.

The pools are:

Each team will play all others members of their group, with the first game at 8.40am. Two ovals will be used with games being played concurrently, so for spectators and players alike there will be plenty of action. The top two teams in the respective groups will progress to the semi finals with the Grand Final to be played at approximately 5pm.

The draw was filmed by ESPN and is intended to be televised on this coming Thursday’s Football Crazy Show. How much they show of the draw will obviously be at the producer's discretion, but hopefully our game will get some welcome publicity.

On revealed form this year it would appear the favourites from Group A to contest the Semi Finals would be Bali and Singapore though all teams in the group have good form and it is expected that all matches will be hotly contested.

In Group B, Hong Kong and UAE are the standouts, though Thailand have been impressive in lead up matches and could spring a major surprise. Vietnam had a good win recently over a visiting Australian Navy side and also could be a surprise packet.

All in all, it will be an enthralling day of football.

In addition to the international Championships an Under 16 Championship will be held between teams from Singapore and Indonesia. This is the first time such a contest has been possible and augurs well for the future of the game.

The excitement builds to what is the highlight of the Asian Football Calendar.