2016 AFC Futsal Championship qualification
The 2016 AFC Futsal Championship qualification was a men's futsal competition which decided the participating teams of the AFC Futsal Championship">Asian Football Confederation">AFC Futsal Championship. A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Japan, Iran, Uzbekistan, who qualified directly as the top three finishers of the 2014 AFC Futsal Championship. Since third-placed Uzbekistan qualified automatically as hosts, Kuwait, who finished fourth, would have also qualified as the next best-ranked team, but they were later replaced due to FIFA's suspension of the Kuwait Football Association.
The top five teams of the final tournament qualified for the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Colombia.
Teams
A total of 26 AFC member national teams entered the qualifying stage, split into zones according to their regional affiliations.- West Asia had seven entrants, where they were drawn into one group of four teams and one group of three teams.
- Central Asia had four entrants, where they were all placed in one group.
- South Asia had no entrants.
- ASEAN had ten entrants, with the 2015 AFF Futsal Championship doubling as the ASEAN qualifiers, where they were drawn into two groups of five teams.
- East Asia had five entrants, where they were all placed in one group.
Apart from the four direct qualifiers, the remaining twelve slots in the final tournament were allocated as follows:
- Each zone was allocated a minimum of two slots.
- Additional slots were allocated based on the technical standard team ranking from fourth to seventh placing in the 2014 AFC Futsal Championship, with West Asia and ASEAN each allocated two additional slots.
| Slots + Direct qualifiers | Teams entering qualification | Did not enter | |
| West Zone | 4 slots + 1 | ||
| Central Zone | [|2] slots + + | None | |
| South Zone | 0 slots | None | |
| ASEAN Zone | 4 slots | ||
| East Zone | 2 slots + |
Format
In each group, teams played each other once at a centralised venue. The top two teams of each group qualified for the final tournament.Tiebreakers
The teams were ranked according to points for a win|points]. If tied on points, tiebreakers would be applied in the following order:- Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- If, after applying criteria 1 to 3, teams still have an equal ranking, criteria [|1] to [|3] are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 9 apply;
- Goal difference in all the group matches;
- Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
- Penalty shoot-out if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
- Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches ;
- Drawing of lots.
Zones
The matches were played on the following dates:- West Zone: 1–3 October 2015
- ASEAN Zone: 8–16 October 2015
- Central Zone: 14–16 November 2015
- East Zone: 14–19 November 2015
West Zone
- For the draw, the teams were seeded according to their performance in the previous season in 2014.
- *Pot 1: Iraq, Lebanon
- *Pot 2: Qatar, Saudi Arabia
- *Pot 3: Bahrain, United Arab Emirates
- *Pot 4: Jordan
- All matches were held in Malaysia.
- Times listed were UTC+8.
Group A
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Group B
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ASEAN Zone
- All matches were held in Thailand. The tournament was originally to be held in Indonesia before the suspension of its football association.
- Times listed were UTC+7.
Central Zone
- All matches were held in Tajikistan.
- Times listed were UTC+5.
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East Zone
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Qualified teams
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.| Team | Qualified as | Qualified on | Previous appearances in tournament3 |