2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification


The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.
A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Qatar who qualified automatically as hosts.

Format changes

The AFC Executive Committee had approved several strategic recommendations put forward by the AFC Competitions Committee, one of which was the removal of zone restrictions in AFC youth competitions.

Draw

Forty-three of the 47 AFC member associations, including the final tournament hosts Qatar, submitted their interest to compete in the qualifiers. The draw took place on 25 May 2023 at 15:00 MST, at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup final tournament and qualification. The nations chosen as group hosts were announced on 17 May and were drawn into separate groups at the beginning of the draw. As Qatar already qualified for the final tournament as hosts and their fixtures will be considered as friendly matches, they were seeded as an unranked team for the draw and placed in Pot 4.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Host Pot
Remaining Teams

;Notes
  • Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
  • ': Qualification group hosts determined before the draw
  • ': Final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results
  • ': Withdrew after draw

  • ''
;Notes

Draw result

The draw resulted in following groups.

Bold indicates that the team has qualified for the final tournament.

Format

In each group, teams played each other once at a centralized venue. The eleven group winners and the four best runners-up qualified for the final tournament.

Tiebreakers

Teams were ranked according to [three three points for a win|points for a win|points], and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were 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 were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were 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 were tied and they met in the last round of the group;
  8. Lower disciplinary points ;
  9. Drawing of lots.

Groups

All matches were played between 6 September and 12 September 2023.

Group A

  • All matches were held in Jordan.
  • Times listed are UTC+3.

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Group B

  • All matches were held in South Korea.
  • Times listed are UTC+9.
  • Qatar already qualified to the final tournament as host country, so their matches will not be taken into account when calculating the group ranking.

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Group C


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Group D


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Group E


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Group F

  • All matches were held in Kuwait.
  • Times listed are UTC+3.

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Group G

  • All matches were held in China.
  • Times listed are UTC+8.

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Group H


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Group I


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Group J


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Group K


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Ranking of runners-up

  • The four best-ranked runners-up also qualified for the final tournament.
  • Due to groups being different sizes, results against fourth-place teams were not used to calculate the ranking; Group B matches against Qatar were treated as friendlies and were not used to determine group standing.

Goalscorers

There were 152 individuals who scored at least 1 goal.

Qualified teams

The following teams qualified for the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup.
TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious qualifications
30 9 20224
5
5
4
5
5
5
4
4
5
5
0
2
1
4
2

Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.