The 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification was an international men's under-23 football competition which decided the participating teams of the 2024 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 (UTC+8), 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 4Host PotRemaining Teams

Notes Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament. (H): Qualification group hosts determined before the draw (Q): Final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results (W): Withdrew after draw

+Did not enter (N) (X) Notes (N): Not a member of the International Olympic Committee, ineligible for Olympics (X): Suspended

Draw result The draw resulted in following groups.

+ Group A Team A1 A2 A3 A4 + Group B Team B1 B2 B3 B4 + Group C Team C1 C2 C3 C4 + Group D Team D1 D2 D3 D4 + Group E Team E1 E2 E3 E4 + Group F Team F1 F2 F3 F4 + Group G Team G1 G2 G3 G4 + Group H Team H1 H2 H3 H4 + Group I Team I1 I2 I3 I4 + Group J Team J1 J2 J3 J4 + Group K Team K1 K2 K3 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 points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:

Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; 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; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group; Lower disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points); 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.

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.

Group C All matches were held in Vietnam. Times listed are UTC+7.

Group D All matches were held in Bahrain. Times listed are UTC+3.

Group E All matches were held in Uzbekistan. Times listed are UTC+5.

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

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

Group H All matches were held in Thailand. Times listed are UTC+7.

Group I All matches were held in Tajikistan. Times listed are UTC+5.

Group J All matches were held in Saudi Arabia. Times listed are UTC+3.

Group K All matches were held in Indonesia. Times listed are UTC+7

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.

Team Qualified as Qualified on Previous qualifications 4 (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 4 (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 4 (2013, 2016, 2020, 2022) 4 (2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 5 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022) 0 (debut) 2 (2013, 2022) 1 (2022) 4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2020) 2 (2018, 2022) Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

See also 2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualification 2024 AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup qualification

References