The2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification was an international men's under-16football competition which decides the participating teams of the2018 AFC U-16 Championship.
A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, includingMalaysia who qualified automatically as hosts.[2]
Of the 47AFC member associations, a total of 45 teams entered the competition.[3] The final tournament hosts Malaysia also entered in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament (they had not been confirmed as hosts at the time of the qualification draw).[4]
The draw was held on 21 April 2017, 15:00MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House inKuala Lumpur,Malaysia.[5] The 45 teams were drawn into ten groups: five groups of five teams and five groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:[6]
West: 23 teams fromWest Asia,Central Asia andSouth Asia, to be drawn into five groups: three groups of five teams and two groups of four teams (Groups A–E).
East: 22 teams fromASEAN andEast Asia, to be drawn into five groups: two groups of five teams and three groups of four teams (Groups F–J).
The teams were seeded in each zone according to their performance in the2016 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament andqualification (overall ranking shown in parentheses; NR stands for non-ranked teams). The following restrictions were also applied:[7]
The seven teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.
In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualify for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts Malaysia win their group or are among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.[5]
Teams are ranked according topoints (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):[9]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
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 are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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);
Due to groups having different number of teams and the withdrawal of United Arab Emirates from Group E, the results against the fifth and fourth-placed teams in five and four-team groups are not considered for this ranking.
Sutan Zico(10 goals)
Jordan
Saudi Arabia(H)
Uzbekistan
Bahrain
Sri Lanka
Tajikistan(H)
Oman
Syria
Maldives
Turkmenistan
Iran(H)
Afghanistan
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon
Bhutan
Iraq
India
Palestine
Nepal(H)
Yemen
Bangladesh
Qatar(H)
United Arab Emirates
North Korea
Hong Kong
Brunei
Chinese Taipei(H)
Macau
Thailand(H)
Timor-Leste
Laos
Northern Mariana Islands
South Korea
China
Myanmar(H)
Philippines
Australia
Vietnam
Cambodia
Mongolia(H)
Japan
Malaysia[a]
Singapore
Guam
Lin Chun-kai
