The 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification was the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, the 17th edition of the international men's football championship of Asia. For the first time, the Asian Cup final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format that was used from 2004 to 2015.
The qualification process involved four rounds, where the first two doubled as the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification for Asian teams.
Format The qualification structure was as follows: First round: A total of twelve teams (teams ranked 35–46) played home-and-away over two legs. The six winners advanced to the second round. Second round: A total of forty teams (teams ranked 1–34 and six first round winners) were divided into eight groups of five teams to play home-and-away round-robin matches. The eight group winners and the four best group runners-up including host UAE qualified for the AFC Asian Cup finals and advance to the third round of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The next sixteen highest ranked teams (the remaining four group runners-up, the eight third-placed teams and the four best group fourth-placed teams) advanced directly to the third round of Asian Cup qualification. The remaining twelve teams entered the play-off round to contest the remaining eight spots in the third round of Asian Cup qualification. Play-off round: At a Competition Committee meeting in November 2014, it was decided that a play-off round of qualifying would be introduced into the qualification procedure. There were two rounds of home-and-away two-legged play-off matches to determine the final eight qualifiers for the third round. Third round: The 24 teams were divided into six groups of four to play home-and-away round-robin matches, and they competed for the remaining slots of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.
The play-off round represented a change from the initially announced qualification format – which saw the remaining fourth-placed teams and the four best group fifth-placed teams also advance to the third round.
Entrants 46 FIFA-affiliated nations from the AFC entered qualification. In order to determine which nations would compete in the first round and which nations would receive a bye through to the second round, the FIFA World Rankings of January 2015 were used (shown in parentheses).
Bye to second round(Ranked 1st to 34th)Competing in first round(Ranked 35th to 46th)
Due to the joint format of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers and AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, the hosts of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, the United Arab Emirates also entered the second round of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers despite having qualified automatically.
Northern Mariana Islands, which is not a FIFA member, were not eligible to enter.
Schedule The schedule of the qualification competition was as follows.
RoundMatchdayDateFirst roundFirst leg12 March 2015Second leg17 March 2015Second roundMatchday 111 June 2015Matchday 216 June 2015Matchday 33 September 2015Matchday 48 September 2015Matchday 58 October 2015Matchday 613 October 2015Matchday 712 November 2015Matchday 817 November 2015Matchday 924 March 2016Matchday 1029 March 2016RoundMatchdayDatePlay-off roundRound 1 First leg2 June 2016Round 1 Second leg7 June 2016Round 2 First leg6 September 2016Round 2 Second leg11 October 2016Third roundMatchday 128 March 2017Matchday 213 June 2017Matchday 35 September 2017Matchday 410 October 2017Matchday 514 November 2017Matchday 627 March 2018
First round
The draw for the first round was held on 10 February 2015, 15:30 MST (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The six teams eliminated from this stage progressed to the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup.
Second round
The draw for the second round was held on 14 April 2015, 17:00 MST (UTC+8), at the JW Marriott Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Groups
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F Indonesia was also drawn into this group, but on 30 May 2015 the country's football association was suspended due to governmental interference, and on 3 June 2015 the team was disqualified and all matches involving it were cancelled.
Group G
Group H
Ranking of runner-up teams To determine the four best runner-up teams, the following criteria are used: Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) Goal difference Goals scored Fair play points Drawing of lots
As a result of Indonesia being disqualified due to FIFA suspension, Group F contained only four teams compared to five teams in all other groups. Therefore, the results against the fifth-placed team were not counted when determining the ranking of the runner-up teams.
Ranking of fourth-placed teams To determine the four best fourth-placed teams, the following criteria were used: Points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss) Goal difference Goals scored Fair play points Drawing of lots
As a result of Indonesia being disqualified due to FIFA suspension, Group F contained only four teams compared to five teams in all other groups. Therefore, the results against the fifth-placed team are not counted when determining the ranking of the fourth-placed teams.
Play-off round
At an AFC Competition Committee meeting in November 2014, it was decided that two rounds of play-off matches would be introduced into the qualification procedure to determine the final eight teams for the main qualifying round.
A total of eight slots for the third round were available from this round (five from round 1, three from round 2). The three teams eliminated from this stage progressed to the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup.
The draw for the play-off round was held on 7 April 2016, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Round 1 The lowest seeded team, Bhutan, received a bye, and the remaining ten teams were drawn into five pairs. Each pair played two home-and-away matches, with the winners qualifying for the third round.
Round 2 The five losers from round 1 joined Bhutan in this round. The six teams were drawn into three pairs. Each pair played two home-and-away matches, with the winners qualifying for the third round.
Third round
A total of 24 teams competed in the third round of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Since the 2019 hosts United Arab Emirates advanced to the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, the automatic slot for the hosts was no longer necessary, and a total of 12 slots for the AFC Asian Cup were available from this round.
Due to the withdrawal of Guam and the suspension of Kuwait, the AFC decided to invite both Nepal and Macau, the top two teams of the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup, to re-enter 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification as replacements in order to maintain 24 teams in the third round of the competition.
The draw for the third round was held on 23 January 2017, 16:00 GST, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The 24 teams were drawn into six groups of four.
Groups 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification tiebreakers Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Qualified teams
The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament.
TeamQualified asQualified onPrevious appearances in AFC Asian Cup1 9 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 9 (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 3 (2007, 2011, 2015) 9 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 13 (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 8 (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 6 (1972, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007) 13 (1956, 1960, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 6 (1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 8 (1972, 1976, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 5 (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2011) 11 (1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 3 (1964, 1984, 2011) 0 (debut) 1 (2000) 4 (1980, 1992, 2011, 2015) 3 (2004, 2011, 2015) 3 (19562, 19602, 2007) 1 (2015) 3 (2004, 2007, 2015) 5 (1988, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015) 1 (2004) 0 (debut) 3 1 (19764) Notes: 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year. 2 As South Vietnam 3 Yemen's debut since the Yemeni Unification at 1990 4 As South Yemen
Goalscorers
14 goals
Mohammad Al-Sahlawi
11 goals
Ahmed Khalil
10 goals
Hamza Al-Dardour Anton Zemlianukhin
9 goals
Manuchekhr Dzhalilov
8 goals
Tim Cahill Yang Xu Sunil Chhetri Khalid Al-Hajri Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali
7 goals
Chencho Gyeltshen Jeje Lalpekhlua Sardar Azmoun Hassan Maatouk Ali Ashfaq Jonathan Cantillana Sameh Maraaba Omar Khribin
6 goals
Yu Dabao Keisuke Honda Naiz Hassan Kim Yu-song Son Heung-min
5 goals
Tom Rogic Chen Po-liang Mehdi Taremi Shinji Kagawa Hassan Abdel-Fattah Kyaw Ko Ko Jong Il-gwan Pak Kwang-ryong Ahmed Mubarak Al-Mahaijri Phil Younghusband Abdelatif Bahdari Ahmad Abu Nahyeh Hassan Al-Haidos Taisir Al-Jassim Ali Mabkhout Sardor Rashidov Abdulwasea Al-Matari
4 goals
Mile Jedinak Mahdi Abduljabbar Wu Chun-ching Younis Mahmoud Shinji Okazaki Munther Abu Amarah Abdallah Deeb Bader Al-Mutawa Yousef Nasser Vitalij Lux Yashir Pinto Tamer Seyam Javier Patiño Boualem Khoukhi Mohammed Muntari Mohammed Musa Osama Omari Akhtam Nazarov Parvizdzhon Umarbayev Igor Sergeev
3 goals
Khaibar Amani Nathan Burns Ismail Abdullatif Abdulla Yusuf Helal Tshering Dorji Chan Vathanaka Jiang Ning Jaimes McKee Maya Yoshida Yaseen Al-Bakhit Odai Al-Saify Khampheng Sayavutthi Rabih Ataya Hilal El-Helwe Ahmad Hazwan Bakri Ali Fasir Aung Thu Ri Hyok-chol Misagh Bahadoran Iain Ramsay Ali Assadalla Yahya Al-Shehri Safuwan Baharudin Fazrul Nawaz Kwon Chang-hoon Lee Jae-sung Sanharib Malki Mahmoud Maowas Teerasil Dangda Arslanmyrat Amanow Altymyrat Annadurdyýew Omar Abdulrahman Odil Ahmedov Lê Công Vinh Nguyễn Văn Toàn
2 goals
Norlla Amiri Jabar Sharza Mustafa Zazai Massimo Luongo Mark Milligan Aaron Mooy Abdulwahab Al-Malood Mohamed Al Romaihi Sayed Mohamed Adnan Abdulla Yaser Khoun Laboravy Prak Mony Udom Wang Yongpo Wu Lei Yu Hanchao Chu En-le Godfred Karikari Lam Ka Wai Sandesh Jhingan Balwant Singh Ashkan Dejagah Ehsan Hajsafi Ali Adnan Justin Meram Mu Kanazaki Ahmed Samir Mirlan Murzaev Khonesavanh Sihavong Hassan Chaito Mohammed Ghaddar Ali Hamam Niki Torrão Mohd Amri Yahyah Safawi Rasid Ahmed Nashid Sithu Aung Sami Al-Hasani Amad Al-Hosni Mohsin Al-Khaldi Raed Ibrahim Saleh Jaka Ihbeisheh Ahmad Maher Wridat Mahmoud Yousef Karim Boudiaf Mohammed Kasola Fahad Al-Muwallad Khairul Amri Jang Hyun-soo Ki Sung-yueng Koo Ja-cheol Suk Hyun-jun Abdelrazaq Al Hussain Raja Rafe Jahongir Ergashev Dilshod Vasiev Pokklaw Anan Theerathon Bunmathan Adisak Kraisorn Mongkol Tossakrai Chiquito do Carmo Ramon Saro Guwanç Abylow Ruslan Mingazow Wahyt Orazsähedow Myrat Ýagşyýew Alexander Geynrikh Anzur Ismailov Nguyễn Anh Đức Nguyễn Văn Quyết Ahmed Al-Sarori Ala Al-Sasi
1 goal
Hassan Amin Zohib Islam Amiri Zubayr Amiri Faysal Shayesteh Josef Shirdel Mathew Leckie Tommy Oar Komail Al-Aswad Sami Al-Husaini Hussain Ali Baba Sayed Reda Issa Ali Jaafar Mohamed Madan Abdullah Omar Jamal Rashid Jahid Hasan Ameli Mamunul Islam Biren Basnet Jigme Dorji Karma Shedrup Tshering Adi Said Thierry Bin Chhin Chhoeun Hong Pheng Keo Sokpheng Sos Suhana Huang Bowen Mei Fang Zhang Linpeng Zhang Xizhe Chen Chao-an Xavier Chen Chen Hao-wei Chen Yi-wei Huang Wei-min Hung Kai-chun Wang Rui Wen Chih-hao Yaki Yen Brandon McDonald Travis Nicklaw Christian Annan Bai He Chan Siu Ki Ju Yingzhi Lo Kwan Yee Paulinho Sandro Tan Chun Lok Jordi Tarrés Xu Deshuai Fulganco Cardozo Sumit Passi Mohammed Rafique Robin Singh Rowllin Borges Karim Ansarifard Saeid Ezatolahi Jalal Hosseini Alireza Jahanbakhsh Kamal Kamyabinia Morteza Pouraliganji