The Football tournament at the 2026 Asian Games was held between 14 September and 3 October 2026 in several cities across both Chūbu and Kansai regions. In this tournament, fifteen teams participated in men's competition and twelve teams participated in women's competition.
South Korea were the men's defending champions, and successfully defended the title beating Japan in the final. Japan were the women's defending champions, and successfully defended the title beating North Korea in the final on penalties.
Competition schedule The schedule is as follows:
GGroup stageQuarter-finalsSemi-finalsBBronze medal matchFGold medal match Mon 14 Tue 15 Wed 16 Thu 17 Fri 18 Sat 19 Sun 20 Mon 21 Tue 22 Wed 23 Thu 24 Fri 25 Sat 26 Sun 27 Mon 28 Tue 29 Wed 30 Thu 1 Fri 2 Sat 3 Men G G G G colspan=3 colspan=3 B F Women G colspan=2 G colspan=3 G colspan=3 colspan=3 colspan=2 B F colspan=2
Venues A total of seven venues around six cities is used.
Eleven venues were chosen for the bid after Aichi-Nagoya was selected, including Toyota, Nagoya, Kariya, Oita, Utsunomiya, Yokohama, Hiroshima, Suita, Saitama, Chiba and Chōfu. Those venues where shortlisted to Toyota, Nagoya, Kariya, Gifu, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, then later excluded Kyoto and Kobe on 30 April 2025. Notably, none of the stadiums used in the 2020 Olympics and 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is used in this tournament, and the Shizuoka Stadium with Nagai Stadium are the only stadiums in this tournament that were used in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
The Toyota Stadium hosts the men's finals, while Shizuoka Stadium hosts the women's finals.
FukuroiOsakaToyotaGifuShizuoka StadiumNagai StadiumToyota StadiumGifu Nagaragawa StadiumCapacity: 50,889Capacity: 47,853Capacity: 45,000Capacity: 26,109NagoyaPaloma Mizuho Rugby StadiumCapacity: 10,400NagoyaCS Asset Minato Soccer StadiumCapacity: 6,700KariyaWave Stadium KariyaCapacity: 2,602
These host cities host the following matches:
Fukuroi Women's – 6 group stage, 2 quarter-finals, 2 semi-finals, bronze medal match and gold medal match Osaka Men's – 2 semi-final matches Women's – 6 group stage, 2 quarter-final matches Toyota Men's – 6 group stage, 2 quarter-finals, bronze medal match and gold medal match Gifu Women's – 5 group stage matches Nagoya, Rugby Stadium Men's – 4 group stage, 2 quarter-final matches Nagoya, Soccer Stadium Men's – 5 group stage matches Kariya Men's – 6 group stage matches Women's – 1 group stage match
Qualification In the previous editions, participating nations were free to enter teams in the football tournament of the Asian Games. For the 2026 Asian Games, a qualification criteria was set up with the participating teams of the 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifying for the men's tournament, and the teams of the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup qualifying for the women's tournament (both with the exception of Australia due to not being a member of the OCA). On 12 March 2026, it was confirmed that Hong Kong's both men's team and women's team would participate in the tournament. On 29 June 2026, it was confirmed that the Philippines would participate in the men's tournament. On 10 July 2026, Indian media The Times of India reported the final men's and women's participating teams; according to the list, in the men's tournament, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria would no longer participate, and were replaced by Kuwait and North Korea. In the women's tournament India and Iran would no longer participate, and were replaced by Myanmar and Thailand. They also stated that the women's tournament will be held not by 16 teams but by 12 teams. On 19 July 2026, 4 days before the draw, it was reported that Iraq had withdrawn from the men's tournament, and its spot would not be filled by another team.
The draw for the tournaments were held on 23 July 2026.
Nation Men's Women's Total: 18 NOCs 15/15 12/12
Participating teams Men's tournament Group AGroup BGroup CGroup D
Women's tournament Group EGroup FGroup G
Men's tournament
Group stage 15 teams were divided into four groups. Top two teams from each group advance to the quarter-finals. Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Medal round
Women's tournament
Group stage 12 teams were divided into three groups. Top two teams from each group along with two best third-placed teams advance to the quarter-finals. Group E
Group F
Group G
Ranking of third-placed teams
Medal round
Medal summary
Medal table
Medalists Men's tournamentAlexandre PisanoRei UmekiKeita KosugiKaito TsuchiyaRion IchiharaShuto NaganoNelson IshiwatariKenshin YasudaYutaka MichiwakiHisatsugu IshiiYumeki YokoyamaMasataka KobayashiShusuke FuruyaYuto OzekiSoichiro MoriYuya FukunagaYotaro NakajimaYudai ShimamotoUche BS NwadikeSena IshibashiMihiro SatoTariqkani Hayato OkabeRui ArakiYu JinyongHu HetaoLiu HaofanShi SongchenZhu ChenjieXu BinXiang YuwangLi XinxiangZhang YuningWang YudongKuai JiwenYao HaoyangMutalifu YimingkariYimulan MaimaitiWu XiLi HaoHe YiranChen ZeshiBaihelamu AbuduwailiYang HaoyuPeng XiaoMao WeijieYang Xi
References
External links Result Book