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Dubai: The UAE FA will take part in the draw of the Asian Youth Cup finals in Dammam of Saudi Arabia on April 6.
The final round will be held in Dammam and Al Khobar from October 31 to November 14 with 16 Asian youth teams taking part. The top four finishers in the finals qualify for the 2009 World Youth Cup in Egypt.
UAE are ranked 11th among in the 16 Asian youth teams who have qualified for the finals. Defending champions North Korea, who won the Asian Youth Cup in 2006, was on top of the ranking, followed by Japan, South Korea and Jordan, respectively, as per the standings of the 2006 Asian Youth Cup.
The 16 teams will be divided into four groups with four teams in each group. The group winner and runner up qualify for the quarterfinals.l.
The top four finishers in the finals qualify for the World Youth Cup next year.
The UAE reached the World Youth Cup finals on two occasions before, the first being in Malaysia in 1997 and then when the UAE host the World Youth Cup finals in 2003.
Warm-ups
The 16 teams who have qualified for the Asian Youth Cup finals in Saudi Arabia are: UAE, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Japan, South Korea, China, North Korea, Australia, Iran, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Tajikistan and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the UAE youth team are looking for opponents for warm-up matches after the Iran youth team regretted for not being able to play on March 23 and 25.
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