2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dates12 March 2015 – 27 March 2018
Teams46[note 1] (from 1 confederation)
Matchesplayed252
Goals scored820 (3.25 per match)
2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification
Tournament details
Dates12 March 2015 – 27 March 2018
Teams46[note 1] (from 1 confederation)
Tournament statistics
Matches played252
Goals scored820 (3.25 per match)
Attendance3,022,771 (11,995 per match)
Top scorerSaudi Arabia Mohammad Al-Sahlawi (14 goals)
← 2015
2023 →

The 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification was the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, the 17th edition of the international men's football championship of Asia. For the first time, the Asian Cup final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used from 2004 to 2015.[1]

The qualification process involved four rounds, where the first two doubled as the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification for Asian teams.

The qualification structure was as follows:[1][2]

  • First round: A total of twelve 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 forty 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 including host UAE qualified for the AFC Asian Cup finals and advance to the third round of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
    • The next sixteen 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 twelve teams entered the play-off round to contest the remaining eight spots in the third round of Asian Cup qualification.[3]
  • 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.[4] 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 2019 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.[1]

Entrants

46 FIFA-affiliated nations from the AFC entered qualification.[5] In order to determine which nations would compete in the first round and which nations would receive a bye through to the second round, the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 were used (shown in parentheses).[6]

Bye to second round
(Ranked 1st to 34th)		 Competing in first round
(Ranked 35th to 46th)
  1.  Iran (51)
  2.  Japan (54)
  3.  South Korea (69)
  4.  Uzbekistan (71)
  5.  United Arab Emirates (80)
  6.  Qatar (92)
  7.  Oman (93)
  8.  Jordan (93)
  9.  China (96)
  10.  Australia (100)
  11.  Saudi Arabia (102)
  12.  Bahrain (110)
  13.  Iraq (114)
  14.  Palestine (115)
  15.  Lebanon (122)
  16.  Kuwait (125)
  17.  Philippines (129)
  18.  Maldives (131)
  19.  Vietnam (133)
  20.  Tajikistan (136)
  21.  Myanmar (141)
  22.  Afghanistan (142)
  23.  Thailand (144)
  24.  Turkmenistan (147)
  25.  North Korea (150)
  26.  Syria (151)
  27.  Kyrgyzstan (152)
  28.  Malaysia (154)
  29.  Hong Kong (156)
  30.  Singapore (157)
  31.  Indonesia (159)
  32.  Laos (160)
  33.  Guam (161)
  34.  Bangladesh (165)
  1.  India (171)
  2.  Sri Lanka (172)
  3.  Yemen (176)
  4.  Cambodia (179)
  5.  Chinese Taipei (182)
  6.  Timor-Leste (185)
  7.    Nepal (186)
  8.  Macau (186)
  9.  Pakistan (188)
  10.  Mongolia (194)
  11.  Brunei (198)
  12.  Bhutan (209)

Due to the joint format of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, the hosts of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, the United Arab Emirates also entered the second round of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers despite having qualified automatically.

Northern Mariana Islands, which is not a FIFA member, were not eligible to enter.

Schedule

The schedule of the qualification competition was as follows.[7][8][9][10]

Round Matchday Date
First round First leg 12 March 2015
Second leg 17 March 2015
Second round Matchday 1 11 June 2015
Matchday 2 16 June 2015
Matchday 3 3 September 2015
Matchday 4 8 September 2015
Matchday 5 8 October 2015
Matchday 6 13 October 2015
Matchday 7 12 November 2015
Matchday 8 17 November 2015
Matchday 9 24 March 2016
Matchday 10 29 March 2016
Round Matchday Date
Play-off round Round 1 First leg 2 June 2016
Round 1 Second leg 7 June 2016
Round 2 First leg 6 September 2016
Round 2 Second leg 11 October 2016
Third round Matchday 1 28 March 2017
Matchday 2 13 June 2017
Matchday 3 5 September 2017
Matchday 4 10 October 2017
Matchday 5 14 November 2017
Matchday 6 27 March 2018

First round

Second round

Play-off round

At an AFC Competition Committee meeting in November 2014, it was decided that two rounds of play-off matches would be introduced into the qualification procedure to determine the final eight teams for the main qualifying round.[4][30]

A total of eight slots for the third round were available from this round (five from round 1, three from round 2).[30] The three teams eliminated from this stage progressed to the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup.[12]

The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 April 2016, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[31]

Round 1

The lowest seeded team, Bhutan, received a bye, and the remaining ten teams were drawn into five pairs. Each pair played two home-and-away matches, with the winners qualifying for the third round.[30]

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Chinese Taipei  2–4  Cambodia 2–2 0–2
Maldives  0–4  Yemen 0–2 0–2
Tajikistan  6–0  Bangladesh 5–0 1–0
Malaysia  6–0  Timor-Leste 3–0
(Forfeited)[32]		 3–0
(Forfeited)[32]
Laos  1–7  India 0–1 1–6

Note: Timor-Leste were ordered by the AFC to forfeit both matches against Malaysia due to the use of falsified documents for their players.[32] Both matches originally ended as 3–0 wins to Malaysia.

Round 2

The five losers from round 1 joined Bhutan in this round. The six teams were drawn into three pairs. Each pair played two home-and-away matches, with the winners qualifying for the third round.[30]

Team 1 Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score Team 2 1st leg 2nd leg
Maldives  5–1  Laos 4–0 1–1
Bangladesh  1–3  Bhutan 0–0 1–3
Timor-Leste  2–4  Chinese Taipei 1–2 1–2

Third round

Qualified teams

Qualification status
  Country qualified for Asian Cup
  Country failed to qualify
  Country disqualified or withdrew

The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous appearances in AFC Asian Cup1
 United Arab EmiratesHosts9 March 20159 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 Saudi ArabiaSecond round group A winners24 March 20169 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 AustraliaSecond round group B winners29 March 20163 (2007, 2011, 2015)
 QatarSecond round group C winners17 November 20159 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 IranSecond round group D winners29 March 201613 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 JapanSecond round group E winners24 March 20168 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 ThailandSecond round group F winners24 March 20166 (1972, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007)
 South KoreaSecond round group G winners13 January 201613 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 UzbekistanSecond round group H winners29 March 20166 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 IraqSecond round 1st best runners-up29 March 20168 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 SyriaSecond round 2nd best runners-up29 March 20165 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2011)
 ChinaSecond round 4th best runners-up29 March 201611 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 IndiaThird Round Group A winners11 October 20173 (1964, 1984, 2011)
 KyrgyzstanThird Round Group A runners-up22 March 20180 (debut)
 LebanonThird Round Group B winners10 November 20171 (2000)
 North KoreaThird Round Group B runners-up27 March 20184 (1980, 1992, 2011, 2015)
 JordanThird Round Group C winners14 November 20173 (2004, 2011, 2015)
 VietnamThird Round Group C runners-up14 November 20173 (19562, 19602, 2007)
 PalestineThird Round Group D runners-up10 October 20171 (2015)
 OmanThird Round Group D winners10 October 20173 (2004, 2007, 2015)
 BahrainThird Round Group E winners14 November 20175 (1988, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015)
 TurkmenistanThird Round Group E runners-up14 November 20171 (2004)
 PhilippinesThird Round Group F winners27 March 20180 (debut)
 YemenThird Round Group F runners-up27 March 20180 (debut)

Notes:

1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.

Goalscorers

14 goals
11 goals
10 goals
9 goals
8 goals
7 goals
6 goals
5 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
1 own goal
Source: the-afc.com

See also

Notes

References

External links

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