Tourney Name: | AFC U-23 Championship qualification |
Year: | 2018 |
Country: | Kyrgyzstan (Group A) |
Country2: | Saudi Arabia (Group B) |
Country3: | Qatar (Group C) |
Country4: | United Arab Emirates (Group D) |
Country5: | Palestine (Group E) |
Country6: | Myanmar (Group F) |
Country7: | North Korea (Group G) |
Country8: | Thailand (Group H) |
Country9: | Vietnam (Group I) |
Country10: | Cambodia (Group J) |
Dates: | 15–23 July 2017[1] |
Num Teams: | 40 |
Confederations: | 1 |
Venues: | 10 |
Cities: | 10 |
Matches: | 57 |
Goals: | 205 |
Prevseason: | 2016 |
Nextseason: | 2020 |
The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.
A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including China PR who qualified automatically as hosts.[2]
Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 40 teams entered the competition. The final tournament hosts China PR decided to participate in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament.[3]
The draw was held on 17 March 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[4] The 40 teams were drawn into ten groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:
The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification. The following restrictions were also applied:[5]
width=25% | Pot 1 | width=25% | Pot 2 | width=25% | Pot 3 | width=25% | Pot 4 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
West Zone | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top | |||||
East Zone | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top | valign=top |
+Did not enter | |||
West Zone | valign=top |
| |
---|---|---|---|
East Zone | valign=top |
Players born on or after 1 January 1995 were eligible to compete in the tournament.[7]
In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualified for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts China PR won their group or were among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualified for the final tournament.[4]
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 (Regulations Article 9.3):[7]
The matches were played between 15 and 23 July 2017.
+Schedule | |||||
Matchday | Dates | Matches | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Group D | Groups A–C, E–J | Groups B–J | Group A | ||
Matchday 1 | 15 July 2017 | 19 July 2017 | 1 v 4, 2 v 3 | 3 v 1 | |
Matchday 2 | 17 July 2017 | 21 July 2017 | 4 v 2, 3 v 1 | 2 v 3 | |
Matchday 3 | 19 July 2017 | 23 July 2017 | 1 v 2, 3 v 4 | 1 v 2 |
Due to groups having different number of teams after the withdrawal of Sri Lanka from Group A, the results against the fourth-placed teams in four-team groups were not considered for this ranking.
The following 16 teams qualified for the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.
Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in AFC U-23 Championship1 |
---|---|---|---|---|
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
1 (2013) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
1 (2016) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
0 (debut) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
0 (debut) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
1 (2016) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
1 (2016) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) | ||||
2 (2013, 2016) |
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.