AFC Asian Cup qualifiers explained

AFC Asian Cup qualifiers
Founded:	1956
Number Of Teams:	46 (currently eligible) 47 (overall)
Region:	Asia and Australia (AFC)
Qualifier For:	AFC Asian Cup
Website:	Official website
Current:	2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification

The AFC Asian Cup qualification^[1] is the process that a national association football team goes through to qualify for the final tournament of AFC Asian Cup. The qualification reduces the large field of eligible entrants from 47 to just 24 for the finals.

The hosts receive automatic berths, and between 1972 and 2015 (except 1976), so did the defending champions.

Format evolution

Over the past century, the AFC Asian Cup has seen various changes in its qualification format as well as the number of teams participating.

Number of teams entering qualification

	1956	1960	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2007	2011	2015	2019	2023	2027
align=left	Total entrants	19	18	18	19	26	31	31	30	24	22	35	42	43	25	27	20	46	46	47
align=left	Played at least one match	6	10	4	14	13	15	17	21	20	20	33			24	24		45		46
align=left	Qualified via qualification	2	3	1	3	5	3	9	8	8	6	10	10	14	12	10	11	23	23	23
align=left	Qualified without playing	2	1	3	2	1	3	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	4	6	5	0	0	0
align=left	Total finalists	4	4	4	4	6	6	10	10	10	8	12	12	16	16	16	16	24	24	24

1956

The 19 teams were divided in to three different zones based upon their location. In each zone, the teams played in a two legged Knockout format. The four winners of first round advanced to the next round. The two winners in the second round advanced to final which decided the team participating in the final tournament along with the hosts.

1960–1972

From 1960, the format had a slight change. The participating teams were again divided into zones based upon their location. The teams in their zones played against each other once, in a round robin format. The group topper of each zone advanced to the final tournament along with the hosts.

1972–1980

Starting from 1972, the format saw another change. Instead of zones, the teams were now divided into groups, with two teams instead of one advancing to the final tournament along with the hosts. Also the number of teams participating in the final tournament was increased to six and then to ten in 1980.

1984 & 1988

For a brief period, the teams were divided into groups not based on their location. This saw teams from all zones competing against each other in Asian Cup qualifiers for the first time since its inception. Two teams from each group qualified for the final tournament, along with the winners of previous edition who received a direct entry and as well as the hosts.

1992–2000

The format was reverted to an older one where teams were segregated based upon their location, but this time the number of participating nations increased. Winners of previous edition and the hosts were joined by the winner of each groups in qualifiers. The number of participants in the final tournament was increased to 12.

2004 & 2007

The tournament started from the preliminary round where the lower ranked teams played against each other, the winners of this round qualified for the qualifying round. In the qualifying round, top two teams from each group qualified for the final tournament. Participation of teams in the final tournament increased from 12 to 16.

2011 & 2015

The hosts, previous edition's winners, runner-up and third placed sides automatically qualified for the final tournament. AFC Challenge Cup winners(2) were also awarded a slot in the final tournament. The remaining ten slots were decided by the qualifying tournament in which the lower ranked teams played in preliminary rounds and the winners advanced to the qualifying round. In the qualifying round, the top two teams from each group received a berth in the final tournament.

2019–present

The proposal to merge the preliminary qualification rounds for FIFA World Cup qualifiers with those for the Asian Cup was ratified by the AFC Competitions Committee.^[2]

The tournament was expanded to 24 teams from previous number of 16.

The qualification structure is as follows:^[3]

• First round: A total of 12 teams (teams ranked 35–46) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round.
• Second round: A total of 40 teams (teams ranked 1–34 and six first round winners) were divided into eight groups of five teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches.
  • The eight group winners and the four best group runners-up advanced to the third round of FIFA World Cup qualification as well as qualified for the AFC Asian Cup finals.
  • The next 16 highest ranked teams (the remaining four group runners-up, the eight third-placed teams and the four best group fourth-placed teams) advanced directly to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
  • The remaining 12 teams entered the play-off round to contest the remaining eight spots in the third round of Asian Cup qualification.^[4]
• Play-off round: At a Competition Committee meeting in November 2014, it was decided that a play-off round of qualifying would be introduced into the qualification procedure.^[5] There were two rounds of home-and-away two-legged play-off matches to determine the final eight qualifiers for the third round.
• Third round: The 24 teams were divided into six groups of four to play home-and-away round-robin matches, and they competed for the remaining slots of the AFC Asian Cup.

The play-off round represented a change from the initially announced qualification format – which saw the remaining fourth-placed teams and the four best group fifth-placed teams also advance to the third round.

Participating teams

Only teams that played at least one match are considered for the purposes of first appearance. Teams that withdrew prior to the qualification, or that qualified to the AFC Asian Cup by walkover due to other teams' withdrawals, are not considered.

Year!colspan=3

Debuting teams	Successor teams	Renamed teams
Teams			width=40		width=40
1956	,,,,,	6	6
1960	,,,,,	6	12
1964		1	13
1968	,,	3	16
1972	,,,,,,,	8	24
1976	,,,,	5	29
1980	,,	3	32
1984	,,	3	35
1988		1	36
1992	None	0	36
1996	,,,,,,	7	43
2000	,,,	4	47
2004		1	48
2007		1	49
2011	None	0	49
2015	None	0	49
2019	None	0	49
2023	None	0	49
2027	None	0	49

Teams' entries prior to their actual debuts in qualification

Successor and renamed teams

Team records

The below table compares the overall records of all teams that have participated in qualification. Teams are ordered by points using the three points for a win system, then by goal difference, and then by goals scored. Note that this order does not represent any official rankings, and qualification tournaments are not direct competitions among all teams.

The "Qualifying attempts" column only counts qualifying campaigns where the team played at least one match, while the "Appearances in the finals" also include automatic qualifiers.

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

Key
Team has qualified for the main tournament through a qualifying process
Team has qualified for the main tournament only automatically as host
Team has not qualified for the main tournament
Team is not a member of AFC but has qualified for the main tournament
Defunct team has qualified for the main tournament only by walkover
Team is not a member of AFC and is not eligible for the main tournament

Teams in bold are currently participating or are yet to start in the 2027 qualification. The table is updated to the matches played after 2023 qualification.

No.	Team	Qualifying attempts		Appearances in the finals	Overall qualification record							Points
		width=20	Total		width=20	Successful	width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=20		width=40	Points	width=40
1		12	11	15	69	52	10	7	209	37	+172	166	2.406
2		12	12	13	60	41	11	8	178	26	+152	134	2.233
3		11	9	11	58	41	7	10	134	38	+96	130	2.241
4		13	10	15	56	41	6	9	186	24	+162	129	2.304
5		15	8	8	81	38	15	28	155	107	+48	129	1.593
6		11	10	11	56	40	8	8	155	34	+121	128	2.286
7		13	7	7	67	38	11	18	134	67	+67	125	1.866
8		8	8	11	48	39	6	3	152	21	+131	123	2.563
9		10	5	5	61	36	7	18	140	60	+80	115	1.885
10		11	5	5	64	33	15	16	113	52	+61	114	1.781
11		11	7	7	65	34	9	22	100	60	+40	111	1.708
12		8	6	10	44	35	4	5	138	19	+119	109	2.477
13		9	9	10	49	33	10	6	102	36	+66	109	2.224
14		11	7	10	61	30	17	14	134	58	+76	107	1.754
15		17	3	4	79	30	15	34	144	130	+14	105	1.329
16		8	8	8	47	33	5	9	112	39	+73	104	2.212
17		17	3	4	90	27	23	40	115	131	–16	104	1.155
18		12	4	5	63	27	11	25	113	91	+22	92	1.460
19		7	6	5	45	23	11	11	70	48	+22	80	1.777
20		13	4	5	64	21	12	31	96	103	–7	75	1.171
21		8	2	3	52	21	10	21	74	71	+3	73	1.403
22		11	3	5	63	19	11	33	73	106	–33	68	1.079
23		13	0	1	74	19	11	44	81	141	–60	68	0.918
24		4	4	5	26	21	2	3	70	13	+57	65	2.500
25		10	1	1	70	17	13	40	75	139	–64	64	0.914
26		5	2	2	37	18	5	14	58	53	+5	59	1.567
27		5	2	3	40	17	6	17	78	46	+32	57	1.425
28		5	1	1	38	16	7	15	57	56	+1	55	1.447
29		6	1	1	45	16	5	24	60	120	–60	53	1.177
30		5	2	2	34	15	5	14	58	50	+8	50	1.470
31		10	2	2	56	14	3	39	72	148	–76	45	0.803
32		6	1	1	47	12	5	30	44	140	–96	41	0.872
33		9	1	1	45	11	7	27	45	116	–71	40	0.888
34		6	0	0	41	6	10	25	34	109	–75	28	0.682
35		9	1	1	53	5	13	37	33	140	–107	28	0.528
36		6	0	0	45	8	3	34	40	134	–94	27	0.600
37		8	0	0	42	8	1	33	30	132	–102	25	0.595
38		4	0	0	20	7	1	12	20	41	–21	22	1.100
39		7	0	0	24	5	2	17	22	55	–33	17	0.708
40		4	0	0	32	5	2	25	22	166	–144	17	0.531
41		11	0	0	39	4	4	31	23	105	–82	16	0.410
42		7	0	0	39	4	2	33	14	158	–144	14	0.358
43		2	0	0	8	4	0	4	9	9	0	12	1.500
44		4	0	0	19	3	3	13	13	62	–49	12	0.631
45		1	1	4	6	3	2	1	10	8	+2	11	1.833
46		5	0	0	26	3	1	24	13	122	–109	10	0.384
47		6	0	0	15	2	1	12	6	59	–53	7	0.466
48		1	0	1	3	0	1	2	1	4	–3	1	0.333
49		3	0	0	18	0	0	18	6	78	–72	0	0.000

Teams yet to qualify for the finals tournament

Legend

• – Did not qualify
• – Did not enter / Withdrew / Banned

For each tournament, the number of teams in each finals tournament are shown (in parentheses).

Team (14)	class=unsortable	1956 (4)	class=unsortable	1960 (4)	class=unsortable	1964 (4)	class=unsortable	1968 (5)	class=unsortable	1972 (6)	class=unsortable	1976 (6)	class=unsortable	1980 (8)	class=unsortable	1984 (8)	class=unsortable	1988 (8)	class=unsortable	1992 (8)	class=unsortable	1996 (12)	class=unsortable	2000 (12)	class=unsortable	2004 (16)	class=unsortable	2007 (16)	class=unsortable	2011 (16)	class=unsortable	2015 (16)	class=unsortable	2019 (24)	class=unsortable	2023 (24)	class=unsortable	2027 (24)	Attempts
	×	×	×	×	×	•	•	•	×	×	×	×	•	×	•	•	•	•		8
	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	•	•	×	•	•	•	•		6
	×	×	×	×	•	•	×	×	×	×	×	•	•	×	•	×	•	•		7
	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=5	Part of	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=6	Part of	×	•	×	×	×	•	×		2
	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	•	•	•	×	•	•	×	•	×	6
	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=10	Part of	•	•	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=7	UEFA member	2
	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	•	•	×	×	•	•	•		5
	×	×	×	×	×	×	•	×	×	•	•	•	•	×	•	•	•	•	•	9
	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=3	Part of	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	•	•	•	×	•	•	•	•		7
	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=11	Not AFC member	•	•	×	•	•	•	•	•	6
	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=4	Not AFC member	×	×	×	•	•	×	•	•	•	×	•	•	•	•		9
	bgcolor=lightgrey colspan=14	Not AFC member	×	•	×	×	×	1
	×	•	×	•	×	×	×	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•	•		13
	×	×	×	×	•	×	•	•	×	×	•	•	•	×	•	•	•	•		10

See also

• AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification
• AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament
• FIFA World Cup qualification
• FIFA Women's World Cup qualification
• UEFA European Championship qualifying
• UEFA Women's Championship qualifying
• CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification

Notes

1. The notation used in the logo for the qualifiers is "AFC Asian Qualifiers"
2. Web site: ExCo approves expanded AFC Asian Cup finals . AFC . 16 April 2014 . 25 August 2014.
3. Web site: AFC Asian Cup 2019 Competition Regulations. AFC.
4. Web site: World Cup draw looms large in Asia. https://web.archive.org/web/20150416192221/http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2015/m=4/news=world-cup-draw-looms-large-in-asia-2590022.html. dead. 16 April 2015. FIFA.com. 13 April 2015. Completing the tournament's qualifying contenders will be the next 16 highest ranked teams, with the remaining 12 sides battling it out in play-off matches to claim the last eight spots..
5. Web site: AFC Competitions Committee meeting . . 28 November 2014 . 30 November 2014.

External links

• AFC Asian Cup Official Website
• AFC Asian Cup, AFC.com
• Asian Nations Cup, RSSSF archive
• Asian Nations Cup - All-Time Tables and Final Placings, RSSSF archive