Games organisers to hold fresh soccer draws

JAKARTA: A fresh draw for the men’s football tournament at this year’s Asian Games will be held on Wednesday after two countries were left out of the first one earlier this month, an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) spokeswoman said.

The new draw will take place at the organisation’s headquarters in Malaysia at 3:00pm local time (0700 GMT).

The United Arab Emirates and Palestine were left out of the first draw on July 5, despite there being no discrepancies in the entries submitted by the two countries.

Their inclusion in Wednesday’s draw will raise the number of participating countries to 26. Four groups will have four teams each while two groups will have five teams each.

The participating nations can each field only three players above the age of 23. Group matches in football are scheduled to begin a few days ahead of the official start of the Games, which will run from August 18 to September 2.