On May 3, the Competition Committee of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) held its fourth meeting in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) under the chairmanship of Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the AFC Competition Committee, President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF). At the meeting, the Competition Committee agreed to choose Saudi Arabia as the host for the next three AFC U-17 Championships, 2026-2028.

The decision was made after an evaluation of the nomination dossiers and overall risk from three candidates: the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF), the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the Iraqi Football Federation.

PHOTO: VFF

The AFC Competitions Committee said that both SAFF and CFA met the requirements to host the tournament. However, as CFA had already been awarded the hosting rights for the 2026–2028 AFC U-17 Women's Championship, to ensure diversity and fairness in the allocation of tournaments, the AFC decided to select SAFF to host the respective men's tournament.

Also within the framework of the meeting, the AFC Competition Committee approved many important contents such as: Regulations for the 2026 AFC U-17 Championship, AFC Equipment Regulations (2025 version), amendments to the Competition Regulations for the 2026 AFC U-23 Championship, AFC Champions League Two 2025-2026 and AFC Challenge League 2025-2026 - especially new regulations on substitutions due to concussion.

Additionally, updates to the 2025-2026 AFC Champions League Elite Competition Regulations regarding how final rankings are determined in the event of withdrawals have also been approved.

The AFC competition calendar for 2026–2030 has also been approved, with flexibility required to avoid conflicts with FIFA tournaments, such as the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup.

Notably, the meeting also agreed to acknowledge the force majeure case of the Lebanese Football Federation, when the Lebanese U.17 national team was forced to withdraw from the 2025 AFC U.17 Championship qualifiers due to security reasons. The decision to exempt the discipline in this case demonstrates the flexibility and humane sharing from the AFC.