2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification
The 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification is the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation to determine the participating teams for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, the 19th edition of the international men's football championship of Asia.
The qualification process involves a total of four rounds, where the first two rounds double as the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification for Asian teams, with the final two solely for 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification.
Format
The qualification structure is as follows:- First round: 20 teams played home-and-away over two legs.
- *10 winners advanced to the second round.
- *3 best ranked losing teams advanced to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
- *6 worst ranked losing teams advanced to the play-off round of Asian Cup qualification.
- Second round: 36 teams were divided into 9 groups of 4 teams to play home-and-away double round-robin matches.
- *The 9 group winners and 9 group runners-up qualified for the Asian Cup along with host Saudi Arabia and advanced to the third round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
- *The remaining 18 teams advanced to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
- Play-off round: 6 teams played home-and-away over two legs that determined the final 3 qualifiers for the third round.
- Third round: 24 teams were divided into 6 groups of 4 teams to play home-and-away double round-robin matches and the winner of each group will occupy the remaining 6 slots for the Asian Cup.
Entrants
Forty-six FIFA-affiliated nations are eligible to enter the joint qualification process for both the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup; Northern Mariana Islands, which is not a FIFA member, would have entered through the play-off round. However, it was not included in the draw for the play-off round.The draw for the first and second rounds of joint qualification took place on 27 July 2023. Teams were seeded into four pots. Pots 1, 2 and 3 contain the teams ranked 1–9, 10-18 and 19-26 respectively, while Pot 4 contains the remaining 20 teams. All teams from Pot 4 were drawn to the first round into two pots. Teams from Pots 1, 2 and 3 were drawn directly to the second round, along with an allocated first-round tie winner.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the AFC Competitions Calendar. This is the first Asian Cup qualification that starts before the previous final matches would be held, as the 2023 AFC Asian Cup was postponed to early 2024.First roundThe draw for the first round was held on 27 July 2023 at 14:00 MST at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Second roundThe draw for the second round was held on 27 July 2023 at 16:00 MST at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Group HThird roundGroups
Qualified teamsA total of 24 teams will qualify for the final tournament including the host Saudi Arabia.
Top goalscorersThe lists below show all goal scorers for each round: |