2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification

2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification

Tournament details
Host countries	Qatar (Group A) Tajikistan (Group B) Bahrain (Group C) Uzbekistan (Group D) United Arab Emirates (Group E) Jordan (Group F) Tajikistan (Group G) Singapore (Group H) Kyrgyzstan (Group I) Mongolia (Group J) Japan (Group K)
Dates	23 October – 2 November 2021[1]
Teams	38 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	12 (in 10 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	50
Goals scored	146 (2.92 per match)
Attendance	29,433 (589 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Park Jeong-in (5 goals)
← 2020 2024 →

The 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Uzbekistan who qualified automatically as hosts country.^[2]

Due to non-compliance to doping regulations, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned Indonesia and Thailand from using their national flags in competitions, except during the Olympics.^[3][4] It was reported that Indonesia prepared the flag of its federation, in the event its team was barred from using the national flag.^[5]

Out of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 42 teams entered the competition. The final tournament hosts Uzbekistan decided to participate in qualification. Their matches were not taken into account when calculating the group ranking and best second-placed teams among the groups.

The draw was held on 9 July 2021, 12:00 (UTC+5), in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.^[6] The 42 teams were drawn into nine groups of four teams and two groups of three teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:

• West Zone: 23 teams from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, to be drawn into five groups of four teams and one group of three teams (Groups A–F).
• East Zone: 19 teams from ASEAN and East Asia, to be drawn into four groups of four teams and one group of three teams (Groups G–K).

The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2020 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification (overall ranking shown in parentheses). The eleven teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.

On 29 July, North Korea withdrew from the competition due to safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, to better balance of the number of teams across all groups, the AFC conducted a draw on 11 August to move one team from Groups G to J, which was Hong Kong, who were placed in Group K.^[7] On 11 October, China also withdrew from the competition for the same reason, leaving Group G with only two teams.^[8]

	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4
West Zone	Saudi Arabia (2)  Syria (4)  Jordan (5) (H)  United Arab Emirates (7) (H)  Iran (8)  Iraq (9)	Qatar (10) (H)  Bahrain (13) (H)  Tajikistan (16) (H)  Oman (17)  Palestine (20)  Bangladesh (23)	Kuwait (24) (H)  Afghanistan (25) (W)  Turkmenistan (26)  India (27)  Lebanon (30)  Yemen (33)	Kyrgyzstan (36) (H)*    Nepal (37)  Maldives (40)  Sri Lanka (41)  Uzbekistan (Q), (H)*
East Zone	South Korea (1)  Australia (3)  Thailand (6)  North Korea (11) (W)  Vietnam (12)	Japan (14) (H)*  China (15) (W)  Malaysia (18)  Myanmar (19)  Singapore (21) (H)	Hong Kong (22)  Indonesia (28) (H)  Laos (29)  Cambodia (31)  East Timor (32)	Chinese Taipei (34) (H)  Mongolia (35) (H)  Philippines (38)  Brunei (39) (W)

Notes

• Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
• (H): Qualification group hosts determined before the draw
• (H)*: Qualification group hosts determined after the draw
• (Q): Final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results
• (W): Withdrew after draw

Did not enter

West Zone	Bhutan  Pakistan (X)
East Zone	Guam  Macau  Northern Mariana Islands

Notes

• (X): Suspended

The draw resulted in following groups.

Group A Pos Team A1  Syria A2  Qatar A3  Yemen A4  Sri Lanka	Group B Pos Team B1  Iran B2  Tajikistan B3  Lebanon B4    Nepal	Group C Pos Team C1  Iraq C2  Bahrain C3  Afghanistan[a] C4  Maldives	Group D Pos Team D1  Saudi Arabia D2  Bangladesh D3  Kuwait D4  Uzbekistan
Group E Pos Team E1  United Arab Emirates E2  Oman E3  India E4  Kyrgyzstan	Group F Pos Team F1  Jordan F2  Palestine F3  Turkmenistan	Group G Pos Team G1  Australia G2  China[a] G3  Indonesia G4  Brunei[a]	Group H Pos Team H1  South Korea H2  Singapore H3  East Timor H4  Philippines
Group I Pos Team I1  Vietnam I2  Myanmar I3  Chinese Taipei	Group J Pos Team J1  Thailand J2  Malaysia J3  Laos J4  Mongolia	Group K Pos Team K1  Hong Kong K2  Japan K3  Cambodia K4  North Korea[a]

Bold indicates that the team has qualified for the final tournament.

Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to compete in the tournament.^[9]

In each group, teams played each other once at a centralized venue. The eleven group winners and the four best runners-up qualified for the final tournament.

In group G, after the withdrawal of Brunei and China PR, the two teams left (Australia and Indonesia) played each other twice. The winner qualified for the final tournament, with the loser eliminated.^[10][11][12]

Teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings.

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 were 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.

All matches were played between 23 October and 2 November 2021.

• All matches were held in Qatar.
• Times listed are UTC+3.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar (H)	3	2	1	0	9	1	+8	7	Final tournament
2	Syria	3	1	2	0	6	1	+5	5
3	Yemen	3	1	1	1	3	3	0	4
4	Sri Lanka	3	0	0	3	0	13	−13	0

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• All matches were held in Tajikistan.
• Times listed are UTC+5.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	0	9	2	+7	9	Final tournament
2	Tajikistan (H)	3	2	0	1	9	3	+6	6
3	Lebanon	3	1	0	2	4	3	+1	3
4	Nepal	3	0	0	3	0	14	−14	0

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• All matches were held in Bahrain.
• Times listed are UTC+3.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iraq	2	2	0	0	7	0	+7	6	Final tournament
2	Bahrain (H)	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3
3	Maldives	2	0	0	2	0	7	−7	0
4	Afghanistan[a]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew

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• All matches were held in Uzbekistan.
• Times listed are UTC+5.
• Uzbekistan already qualified to the final tournament as host country, so their matches were not taken into account when calculating the group ranking.
• Originally Kuwait was supposed to host group D; however, the AFC changed host country due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. On 19 October 2021, Uzbekistan was named replacement host.^[14]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Kuwait	2	2	0	0	3	1	+2	6	Final tournament
2	Saudi Arabia	2	1	0	1	4	2	+2	3
3	Bangladesh	2	0	0	2	0	4	−4	0

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• All matches were held in the United Arab Emirates
• Times listed are UTC+4.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United Arab Emirates (H)	3	2	0	1	4	2	+2	6	Final tournament
2	India	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4[a]
3	Kyrgyzstan	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4[a]
4	Oman	3	1	0	2	2	4	−2	3

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• All matches were held in Jordan.
• Times listed are UTC+2.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Jordan (H)	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	4	Final tournament
2	Turkmenistan	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	3
3	Palestine	2	0	1	1	2	4	−2	1

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• Both matches were held in Tajikistan.
• Times listed are UTC+5.
• After the withdrawal of Brunei and China PR, the remaining teams left played each other twice. The winner qualified for the final tournament, with the loser eliminated.^[10][11][12]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	2	2	0	0	4	2	+2	6	Final tournament
2	Indonesia	2	0	0	2	2	4	−2	0
3	China[a]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew
4	Brunei[b]	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

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• All matches were held in Singapore.
• Times listed are UTC+8.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Korea	3	3	0	0	14	1	+13	9	Final tournament
2	Singapore (H)	3	1	1	1	4	7	−3	4
3	East Timor	3	1	1	1	3	8	−5	4
4	Philippines	3	0	0	3	0	5	−5	0

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• All matches were to be held in Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), but AFC determined that the host would be changed,^[16] with Kyrgyzstan as the new host.
• Times listed are UTC+6.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Vietnam	2	2	0	0	2	0	+2	6	Final tournament
2	Myanmar	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3
3	Chinese Taipei	2	0	0	2	0	2	−2	0

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• All matches were held in Mongolia.
• Time listed are UTC+8.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Malaysia	3	2	1	0	2	0	+2	7	Final tournament
2	Thailand	3	1	2	0	4	1	+3	5
3	Laos	3	1	0	2	3	6	−3	3
4	Mongolia (H)	3	0	1	2	3	5	−2	1

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• All matches were held in Japan.
• Times listed are UTC+9.
• DPR Korea withdrew from the competition on 29 July. They were replaced by a team initially drawn in Group G–J (excluding host countries and teams from Pot 1), which was determined by a draw on 11 August to be Hong Kong.^[7]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Japan (H)	2	2	0	0	8	0	+8	6	Final tournament
2	Cambodia	2	1	0	1	4	6	−2	3
3	Hong Kong	2	0	0	2	2	8	−6	0
4	North Korea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew[7]

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Due to groups having different numbers of teams, the results against the fourth-placed teams in four-team groups were not considered for this ranking.

Exceptions:

• In Group D, the results against the host country Uzbekistan were not considered.
• In Group G, the runners-up results were not considered for this ranking, as the group contained only two teams.^[10][11][12]

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	J	Thailand	2	1	1	0	3	0	+3	4	Final tournament
2	D	Saudi Arabia	2	1	0	1	4	2	+2	3
3	F	Turkmenistan	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	3
4	B	Tajikistan	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3[a]
5	C	Bahrain	2	1	0	1	3	3	0	3[a]
6	I	Myanmar	2	1	0	1	1	1	0	3
7	K	Cambodia	2	1	0	1	4	6	−2	3
8	A	Syria	2	0	2	0	1	1	0	2
9	E	India	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	1
10	H	Singapore	2	0	1	1	3	7	−4	1

There were 114 individuals who scored at least 1 goal.

There were 146 goals scored in 50 matches, for an average of 2.92 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Source: AFC

The following teams qualified for the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

Team	Qualified as	Qualified on	Previous qualifications
Uzbekistan	Hosts	18 March 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
Qatar	Group A winners	31 October 2021	3 (2016, 2018, 2020)
Iran	Group B winners	31 October 2021	3 (2013, 2016, 2020)
Iraq	Group C winners	31 October 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
Kuwait	Group D winners	30 October 2021	1 (2013)
United Arab Emirates	Group E winners	30 October 2021	3 (2013, 2016, 2020)
Jordan	Group F winners	31 October 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
Australia	Group G winners	29 October 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
South Korea	Group H winners	31 October 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
Vietnam	Group I winners	2 November 2021	3 (2016, 2018, 2020)
Malaysia	Group J winners	31 October 2021	1 (2018)
Japan	Group K winners	28 October 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
Thailand	1st best runners-up	31 October 2021	3 (2016, 2018, 2020)
Saudi Arabia	2nd best runners-up	2 November 2021	4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020)
Turkmenistan	3rd best runners-up	31 October 2021	0 (Debut)
Tajikistan	4th best runners-up	2 November 2021	0 (Debut)

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

• 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualification