The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted men's football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for under-23 national teams. A total of 16 teams competed in the tournament. It took place between 8–26 January 2020 in Thailand.
The tournament acted as the AFC qualifiers for the 2020 Summer Olympics men's football tournament. The top three teams of the tournament would qualify for the Olympics in Japan as the AFC representatives. As Japan had already qualified as the hosts, had they reached the semi-finals, the other semi-finalists were guaranteed qualification even before the phase would have commenced.
Uzbekistan were the defending champions, but were eliminated in the semi-finals. South Korea became the fourth different country to win the tournament, beating Saudi Arabia in the final, while Australia defeated Uzbekistan in the third place game 1–0.
Host selection
Several nations expressed interest to host the tournament, including Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand were selected as host of the competition at an AFC Competition Committee's meeting in Tokyo in August 2018.
Qualification
The qualifiers were held from 18 to 26 March 2019, during the FIFA International Match Calendar.
Qualified teams
Thirteen of the sixteen teams (including hosts Thailand) that qualified for 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualified again for the 2020 final tournament. The 2013 champions Iraq, 2016 champions Japan, 2018 champions Uzbekistan all qualified for the 2020 final tournament. The teams: Iraq, Japan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, South Korea, China PR, Australia qualified for all editions of AFC U-23 Championship till 2020.
Iran, United Arab Emirates come back after missing out in 2018, with Bahrain making their debut at the tournament finals.
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
Venues
The competition was played in four venues across four cities/provinces.
Draw
The draw of the final tournament was held on 26 September 2019, 15:00 ICT (UTC+7), at the Swissotel Bangkok Ratchada in Bangkok. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Thailand automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
Match officials
On 3 January 2020, the AFC announced the list of referees chosen for the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship. 34 referees, 26 assistant referees and 2 support assistant referees were appointed for the tournament. Video assistant referees will be used in this tournament.
Referees
Chris Beath
Shaun Evans
Nawaf Shukralla
Fu Ming
Ma Ning
Liu Kwok Man
Alireza Faghani
Ali Sabah
Mohanad Qasim Sarray
Jumpei Iida
Hiroyuki Kimura
Ryuji Sato
Minoru Tōjō
Adham Makhadmeh
Ahmad Faisal Al-Ali
Kim Hee-gon
Kim Jong-hyeok
Ko Hyung-jin
Mohd Amirul Izwan Yaacob
Ahmed Al-Kaf
Abdulla Al-Marri
Abdulrahman Al-Jassim
Khamis Al-Kuwari
Khamis Al-Marri
Turki Al-Khudhayr
Muhammad Taqi
Hettikamkanamge Perera
Hanna Hattab
Sivakorn Pu-udom
Ammar Al-Jeneibi
Mohammed Abdulla Hassan Mohamed
Omar Mohamed Al-Ali
Valentin Kovalenko
Ilgiz Tantashev
Assistant referees
Anton Shchetinin
Ashley Beecham
Mohamed Salman
Abdulla Al-Rowaimi
Cao Yi
Shi Xiang
Mohammadreza Abolfazl
Mohammadreza Mansouri
Ahmad Al-Roalle
Mohammad Al-Kalaf
Jun Mihara
Hiroshi Yamauchi
Park Sang-jun
Yoon Kwang-yeol
Abu Bakar Al-Amri
Rashid Al-Ghaithi
Saud Al-Maqaleh
Taleb Al-Marri
Mohammed Al-Abakri
Khalaf Al-Shammari
Ronnie Koh Min Kiat
Palitha Hemathunga
Mohammed Al-Hammadi
Hasan Al-Mahri
Timur Gaynullin
Andrey Tsapenko
Support assistant referees
Mohd Yusri Muhamad
Rawut Nakarit
Squads
Players born on or after 1 January 1997 were eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team had to register a squad of minimum 18 players and maximum 23 players, minimum three of whom must have been goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 24.1 and 24.2).
Group stage
The top two teams of each group advanced to the quarter-finals.