FOOTBALL: The Australian men's under-23 football team have been drawn with with Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam for January's AFC U-23 Championships in Doha.

The official draw for the tournament was held on Saturday in Qatar.

After learning of the groupings, Australian coach Aurelio Vidmar was reasonably happy with Australia's opponents in Group D.

"You get to this stage and all the big teams are in there anyway so I'm pretty pleased with the draw.

"We've got a lot to make up for missing out last time. We had UAE in our final group four years ago so that's also a nice one to hopefully get one back on them.

"We'll start to scout the opposition. Physically, we're going to work out a plan in the next few weeks on how to best prepare the team for January.

"In October, we'll have another strong hitout with two games against South Korea which will be very important in the lead-up to January.

"We have to qualify - very simple," said Vidmar.

Australia begin their U-23 Championship campaign against UAE on January 14 at the Grand Hamad Stadium, before taking on Vietnam three days later at the same venue, with their final group match against Jordan on January 20 at Suhaim Bin Hamad Stadium.

Sixteen (16) nations will contest the Doha tournament with the top three (3) progressing to next year's Rio Olympic Games.

The Australians will play two friendlies against South Korea on October 9 and 12 at the Hwaseong Sports Complex Stadium and Icheon Sports Complex Stadium as part of their preparations.

AFC U-23 Championship Doha 2016 Groups:

* Group A: Qatar, Syria, Iran, China PR

* Group B: Saudi Arabia, Japan, DPR Korea, Thailand

* Group C: Iraq, Korea Republic, Uzbekistan, Yemen

* Group D: Jordan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam

Football Federation Australia