2018 AFC Futsal Championship qualification explained

Tourney Name:AFC Futsal Championship qualification
Year:2018
Dates:[1]
Num Teams:29
Confederations:1
Matches:44
Goals:391
Prevseason:2016
Nextseason:2020

The 2018 AFC Futsal Championship qualification was the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship, the 15th edition of the international men's futsal championship of Asia.[2]

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Chinese Taipei who qualified automatically as hosts.[3]

The qualification process was divided into four zones, where the ASEAN Zone doubled as the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship, the East Zone and West Zone was played in Thailand, and the South Zone was merged to Central Zone as Nepal was the only team from South Zone.

Qualification process

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 29 teams entered the competition. The 16 spots in the final tournament are distributed as follows:

As the final tournament hosts had not been announced at the time of the qualifying draw, the hosts Chinese Taipei were also included in the draw. Despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament, they may still decide to participate in qualification, and if they finish in one of the qualification spots, the next best team in their zone (East) advances to play-off.

Draw

Seeding

+East Zone ranking
width=210Team !
7 1
10 2
13 3
4
5
6
+South & Central Zone ranking
width=210Team !
1 1
2 2
6 3
14 4
5
6
+West Zone ranking
width=210Team !
8 1
9 2
11 3
12 4
15 5
6
7
+ASEAN Zone ranking
width=210Team !
3 1
2
16 3
4
5
4
5

AFF Draw

The original draw for the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship was held on 17 February 2017, 10:00 MMT during the AFF Council Meeting at the Novotel Yangon Max Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar.[4] After Australia withdrew from the competition, a re-draw was held on 23 September 2017 during the AFF Council Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.[5]

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFF Futsal Championship tournament.

width=33%Pot 1width=33%Pot 2width=33%Pot 3
valign=topvalign=topvalign=top
Notes

AFC Draw

The draw was held on 6 July 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,[6] [7] except for the ASEAN Zone which uses the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship as their qualification tournament and whose draw had already been held. The mechanism for each zone is as follows:

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC Futsal Championship final tournament and qualification.

width=25%Pot 1width=25%Pot 2width=25%Pot 3width=25%Pot 4

Host:
valign=topvalign=topvalign=top

Host:
valign=topvalign=topvalign=top

Host:
valign=topvalign=topvalign=topvalign=top
Notes
+Did not enter
ASEAN Zonevalign=top
  • (withdrew)[8]
    • (competing but not vying for qualification)
  • (competing but not vying for qualification)
East Zonevalign=top
South & Central Zonevalign=top
West Zonevalign=top
  • (suspended)[9]

Format

In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue; except ASEAN Zone, South & Central Zone.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 11.5):[2]

  1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
  4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
  5. Goal difference in all group matches;
  6. Goals scored in all group matches;
  7. Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
  8. Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
  9. Drawing of lots.

ASEAN Zone

See main article: article and 2017 AFF Futsal Championship.

Group A

----------------

Group B

--------

Final

East Zone

Group A

--------

Group B

--------

Play-off

Winner qualified for 2018 AFC Futsal Championship.

South & Central Zone

Group A

--------

Group B

--------

West Zone

Group A

--------

Group B

--------

Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.

TeamQualified asQualified ondata-sort-type="number"Previous appearances in AFC Futsal Championship1
11 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
4 (2005, 2010, 2014, 2016)
0 (debut)
14 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
11 (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2016)
14 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
12 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014)
11 (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
14 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
14 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
14 (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
9 (2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
1 (2002)
10 (2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016)
10 (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016)
1 (2016)

1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: AFC Competitions Calendar 2017. AFC. 12 April 2016.
  2. Web site: AFC Futsal Championship 2018 Competition Regulations. AFC.
  3. Web site: AFC Futsal Club Licensing Regulations to strengthen professionalism in Asia. AFC. 29 July 2017.
  4. Web site: Women’s Championship 2017 cancelled. ASEAN. 17 February 2017.
  5. Web site: Redraw for AFF HDBank Futsal Championship 2017. ASEAN. 24 September 2017.
  6. Web site: AFC Futsal Championship 2018 Qualifiers Draw. YouTube. 6 July 2017.
  7. Web site: AFC Futsal Championship 2018 hopefuls learn their opponents. AFC. 6 July 2017.
  8. Web site: Futsalroos funding cut by FFA for 2017-18 financial year. Fox Sports Australia. 5 July 2017.
  9. Web site: FIFA Congress drives football forward, first female secretary general appointed. https://web.archive.org/web/20160516152844/http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2016/m=5/news=fifa-congress-drives-football-forward-first-female-secretary-general-a-2790957.html. dead. May 16, 2016. FIFA. 13 May 2016.