The 2006 AFC Challenge Cup was held between 1 and 16 April 2006 in Bangladesh. Sixteen teams were split into four groups, the top two in each group qualifying for the quarterfinals, and from then on a straight knockout contest. There was no qualification stage. The cup winner was Tajikistan. The fair play award was won by Sri Lanka and Tajik Ibrahim Rabimov won the most valuable player award.[1]
Selection of teams
The AFC classed seventeen nations as emerging associations, which need time to develop their football.[2] They were selected in August 2005 to take part. Laos, Mongolia, and Timor-Leste were initially selected to participate, but were later replaced by Bangladesh and India of the developing associations class, reducing the number of participating teams to sixteen.
The AFC decided at its annual meeting, that Bangladesh would host the opening ceremony and that Nepal would host the final unless Bangladesh makes it into the last two, in which case it would be held in Dhaka, its capital.[3][4] It was originally planned that the teams in Groups A and B would play their games in Nepal and that teams in Groups C and D would play in Bangladesh, but due to the political unrest that shook Nepal, it was decided that only Bangladesh would host the tournament.[5][6][7][8] The Challenge Cup was originally scheduled to take place between 26 March to 9 April 2006 but was changed to avoid clashes with Bangladesh's Independence Day on 26 March.[9] The two stadia that were selected to be used during this tournament were: the Bangabandhu Stadium in Dhaka and the MA Aziz Stadium in Chittagong. However, the Bangladesh Army Stadium in Dhaka was later used to make-up the matches that were abandoned due to heavy rain.
^Although the match summary indicates that Mukhidinov scored three goals, a match review article published by the AFC on 19 April 2006 indicates that he only scored two goals while teammate Numonjon Hakimov scored one goal.[11]
