Asian youth championship

AFC U20 Asian Cup China: The India U20 men’s national team are on the brink of history, though they are not quite there yet. The last time they played in the AFC U20 Asian Cup final rounds (formerly known as the AFC Youth Championship and the AFC U19 Championship) was back in 2006 when they hosted the tournament.

For successful qualification campaigns, one would have to go even further back – to 2004 when Turkmenistan’s withdrawal from the tournament meant that India, who had finished second in qualification Group H, got the chance to compete, or back to 2002, when they topped their qualifying group to make it to the final rounds.

India are also the former champions of the Asian Youth Championship; they shared the trophy with Iran in Bangkok in 1974 after a 2-2 stalemate in the final. But much water has flown under the bridge since then. Football in the continent has undergone a sea change in six decades.