Football redraw for Asian Games to take place on Wednesday

A redraw for the men's football tournament at Asian Games in Indonesia will take place on Wednesday, after organisers left out two countries in the first draw earlier in July.

The new draw will take place at the headquarters of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) here in Malaysia, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the first draw held on July 5, there were six groups of four nations, with the top two nations from those six groups, plus the four best third-seeded teams, set to reach the round of 16.

But the AFC ordered Indonesian organisers to conduct a redraw after learning that the UAE and Palestine were left out.

With this redraw the number of participating teams will be 26. Groups A, C, D and F will have four nations each, and Groups B and E will each have five countries.

The Asian Games run from August 18 to September 2, but group play in football will begin a few days ahead.

--IANS

in/