2018 AFC Futsal Championship qualification


The 2018 AFC Futsal Championship qualification was the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation to determine the participating teams for the AFC Futsal Championship">Asian Football Confederation">AFC Futsal Championship, the 15th edition of the international men's futsal championship of Asia.
A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Chinese Taipei who qualified automatically as hosts.
The qualification process was divided into four zones, where the ASEAN Zone doubled as the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship, the East Zone and West Zone was played in Thailand, and the South Zone was merged to Central Zone as Nepal was the only team from South Zone.
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Qualification process

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 29 teams entered the competition. The 16 spots in the final tournament are distributed as follows:
As the final tournament hosts had not been announced at the time of the qualifying draw, the hosts Chinese Taipei were also included in the draw. Despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament, they may still decide to participate in qualification, and if they finish in one of the qualification spots, the next best team in their zone advances to play-off.

Draw

Seeding


AFF Draw

The original draw for the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship was held on 17 February 2017, 10:00 MMT during the AFF Council Meeting at the Novotel Yangon Max Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar. After Australia withdrew from the competition, a re-draw was held on 23 September 2017 during the AFF Council Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFF Futsal Championship tournament.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3

;Notes
  • Not vying for qualification but will still play matches.
  • Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

AFC Draw

The draw was held on 6 July 2017, 15:00 MYT, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, except for the ASEAN Zone which uses the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship as their qualification tournament and whose draw had already been held. The mechanism for each zone is as follows:
  • East Zone : seven teams from East Asia, were drawn into one group of four teams and one group of three teams.
  • South & Central Zone : seven teams from South Asia and Central Asia, were drawn into one group of four teams and one group of three teams.
  • West Zone : eight teams from West Asia, were drawn into two groups of four teams.
The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC Futsal Championship final tournament and 2016 [AFC Futsal Championship qualification|qualification].
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4

Host:

Host:

Host:

;Notes
  • Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
ASEAN Zone
East Zone
South & Central Zone
  • West Zone

  • Format

    In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue; except ASEAN Zone, South & Central Zone.

    Tiebreakers

    Teams are ranked according to points, and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are 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 are 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 ;
    9. Drawing of lots.

    ASEAN Zone

    • The matches were played between 26 October and 30 October 2017.
    • All matches were held in Vietnam.
    • Times listed are UTC+7.
    • In the event the Philippines, Timor Leste or both finish among the top two teams in their group the next best team/s qualify for the final tournament instead since both countries did not submit their entries for the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship.

    Group A

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    Group B

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    East Zone

    Group A

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    Group B

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    Play-off

    Winner qualified for 2018 AFC Futsal Championship.

    South & Central Zone

    • The matches were played between 15 and 17 October 2017.
    • All matches are held in Iran.
    • Times listed are.

    Group A

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    Group B

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    West Zone

    Group A

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    Group B

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    Qualified teams

    The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
    TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in AFC Futsal Championship1
    11
    4
    0
    14
    11
    14
    12
    11
    14
    14
    14
    9
    1
    10
    10
    1