2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification explained
| Tourney Name: | 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification |
| Num Teams: | 46[1] |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Top Scorer: | Almoez Ali
Son Heung-min
(7 goals each) |
| Updated: | 11 June 2024 |
| Prevseason: | 2023 |
| Nextseason: | 2031 |
The 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification is the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, the 19th edition of the international men's football championship of Asia. Since 2019, the Asian Cup final tournament is contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used from 2004 to 2015.[2] [3]
The qualification process involves a total of four rounds, where the first two rounds double as the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification for Asian teams, with the final two solely for 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification.
Format
The qualification structure is as follows:[4]
- First round: 20 teams (ranked 27–46) will play home-and-away over two legs.
- 10 winners advance to the second round.
- 3 best ranked losing teams advance to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
- 6 worst ranked losing teams advance to the play-off round of Asian Cup qualification.
- Second round: 36 teams (ranked 1–26 and 10 first-round winners) are divided into 9 groups of 4 teams to play home-and-away double round-robin matches.
- The 9 group winners and 9 group runners-up qualify for the Asian Cup along with host Saudi Arabia and advance to the third round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
- The remaining 18 teams advance to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
- Play-off round: 6 teams (the worst ranked losing teams from the first round) will play home-and-away over two legs that determine the final 3 qualifiers for the third round.[5]
- Third round: 24 teams (3 best ranked losing team from the first round + 18 third and fourth-placed teams from the second round + 3 winners from the play-off round) will be divided into 6 groups of 4 teams to play home-and-away double round-robin matches and the winner of each group will occupy the remaining 6 slots for the Asian Cup.
Entrants
Forty-six FIFA-affiliated nations are eligible to enter the joint qualification process for both the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup; Northern Mariana Islands, which is not a FIFA member, would have entered through the play-off round.[4] However, it was not included in the draw for the play-off round.[5]
The draw for the first and second rounds of joint qualification took place on 27 July 2023. Teams were seeded into four pots. Pots 1, 2 and 3 contain the teams ranked 1–9, 10-18 and 19-26 respectively, while Pot 4 contains the remaining 20 teams (ranked 27–46). All teams from Pot 4 were drawn to the first round into two pots. Teams from Pots 1, 2 and 3 were drawn directly to the second round, along with an allocated first-round tie winner.[6]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the AFC Competitions Calendar.[8] [9] [10] This is the first Asian Cup qualification that starts before the previous final matches would be held, as the 2023 AFC Asian Cup was postponed to early 2024.
| valign=top | | Round | Matchday | Date(s) |
|---|
| First round | First leg | 12 October 2023 | | Second leg | 17 October 2023 | | Second round | Matchday 1 | 16 November 2023 | | Matchday 2 | 21 November 2023 | | Matchday 3 | 21 March 2024 | | Matchday 4 | 26 March 2024 | | Matchday 5 | 6 June 2024 | | Matchday 6 | 11 June 2024 | |
| valign=top | | Round | Matchday | Date |
|---|
| Play-off round | First leg | 5 September 2024 | | Second leg | 10 September 2024 | | Third round | Matchday 1 | 25 March 2025 | | Matchday 2 | 10 June 2025 | | Matchday 3 | 9 September 2025 | | Matchday 4 | 14 October 2025 | | Matchday 5 | 18 November 2025 | | Matchday 6 | 31 March 2026 | |
| |
First round
See main article: 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC first round. The draw for the first round was held on 27 July 2023 at 14:00 MST (UTC+8) at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[11]
Ranking of best losing teams
Second round
See main article: 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – AFC second round. The draw for the second round was held on 27 July 2023 at 16:00 MST (UTC+8) at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[11]
Group I
Play-off round
See main article: 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – play-off round.
Third round
See main article: 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round.
Group F
Qualified teams
A total of 24 teams will qualify for the final tournament including the host Saudi Arabia.
| Team | Method of
qualification | Date of
qualification | data-sort-type="number" | Finals
appearances | Last
appearance | Previous best
performance |
|---|
| | | 12th | | |
| | | 6th | | |
| | | 11th | | |
| | | 16th | | |
| | | 9th | | |
| | | 12th | | |
| | | 12th | | |
| | | 11th | | |
| | | 16th | | |
| | | 6th | 2023 | |
| | | 4th | | |
| | | 8th | 2023 | |
| | | 6th | 2023 | |
| | | 14th | 2023 | |
| | | 6th | 2023 | |
| | | 6th | 2019 | |
| | | 11th | 2015 | |
| | | 3rd | 2023 | |
| TBD | | | | | |
| TBD | | | | | |
| TBD | | | | | |
| TBD | | | | | |
| TBD | | | | | |
| TBD | | | | | | |
Top goalscorers
The lists below show all goal scorers for each round:
- First round
- Second round
- Play-off round
- Third round
See also
Notes and References
- Saudi Arabia participated to reach the World Cup.
- Web site: ExCo approves expanded AFC Asian Cup finals . Asian Football Confederation . 16 April 2014 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150503231420/http://www.the-afc.com/executive-committee/exco-approves-expanded-afc-asian-cup-finals . 3 May 2015.
- Web site: AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Competition Regulations. AFC. 10 September 2020.
- Web site: AFC Competitions Committee approves key decisions on reformatted competitions. AFC. 1 July 2023. 2 July 2023.
- Web site: Six teams to contest Qualifiers Playoff for Saudi Arabia 2027. AFC. 2 May 2024. 2 May 2024.
- Web site: Pakistan's Draws for FIFA World Cup 2026 Asian Qualifiers Revealed . Saad . Nasir . ProSports . 23 June 2023 . 26 June 2023.
- Web site: FIFA Men's Ranking – July 2023. FIFA. 20 July 2023.
- Web site: AFC Competitions Calendar (Aug 2023 - Jul 2024). AFC. PDF.
- Web site: AFC Competitions Calendar (Aug 2024 - Jul 2025). AFC. PDF.
- Web site: AFC Competitions Calendar (Aug 2025 - Jul 2026) . AFC . PDF.
- Web site: Stage set for FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 Qualifiers draw . AFC. 5 July 2023.
