The Asian Football Confederation was allocated two assured qualifying berths for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. 26 teams were in the running for these spots; Bahrain, India, Maldives and South Yemen withdrew without playing a qualifying match.
Asia's two automatic qualifying berths were taken by Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates.
Format First round: The Maldives withdrew before the final draw, leaving 25 teams to be divided into 6 groups of 4 or 5 teams each. Nepal was moved from Group 5 to Group 4 after India's withdrawal. The teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, except in Group 4, where the teams played against each other twice in South Korea and Singapore. The group winners would advance to the final round. Final round: The 6 teams played against each other once over a 16-day period based in Singapore. The group winner and runner-up would qualify.
First round
Group 1
Qatar advanced to the final round.
Group 2
Saudi Arabia advanced to the final round.
Group 3
United Arab Emirates advanced to the final round.
Group 4
Korea Republic advanced to the final round.
Group 5
China advanced to the final round.
Group 6
Korea DPR advanced to the final round.
Final round
Standings
Korea Republic and the United Arab Emirates qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
Results
Qualified teams The following two teams from AFC qualified for the final tournament.
Team Qualified as Qualified onPrevious appearances in FIFA World Cup1 2 (1954, 1986) 0 (debut) 1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
Goalscorers
7 goals
Hwang Sun-hong
6 goals
Ma Lin Ahmed Radhi Mahmoud Yaseen Al-Soufi
5 goals
Dollah Salleh
4 goals
Mai Chao Kim Yong-se Darimosuvito Tokijan Adnan Al Talyani
3 goals
Mohsen Garousi Farshad Pious Chu Gyong-Sik Kim Pung-Il Hwangbo Kwan Noh Soo-jin Nizar Mahrous Abdul Razaq Ibrahim
2 goals
Tang Yaodong Wang Baoshan Tim Bredbury Nang Yan Leung Herry Kiswanto Karim Bavi Hussein Saeed Mohamed Al-Diabaz Khaled Khalil Awad Ali Marwi Salah Al-Hasawi Han Hyong-Il Ri Hyok-chon Mansoor Muftah Fahad Al-Bishi Majed Abdullah Mohaisen Al-Jam'an Saadoun Al-Suwaiti Darimosuvito Devaraj Salim Moin Ahmad Satter Cho Min-kook Choi Sang-kook Lee Tae-ho Zuhair Bakhit Khalid Ismaïl Khaleel Mubarak
1 goal
Mohammad Aslam Satyajit Das Rupu Wasim Iqbal Rumman Bin Wali Sabbir Jia Xiuquan Liu Haiguang Xie Yuxin Zhang Xiaowen Leslie Santos Inyong Lolumbuman Mustaqim Mustamu Yessy Mohammad Hassan Ansarifard Sayed Ali Eftekhari Sirous Ghayeghran Samad Marfavi Natiq Hashim Habib Jafar Ismail Mohammed Sharif Kenta Hasegawa Takumi Horiike Hisashi Kurosaki Osamu Maeda Takashi Mizunuma Katsuyoshi Shinto Rateb Al-Dawoud Abdulaziz Al-Hajeri Fahad Yousef Al-Sovayed Kurapiah Gunalan Azizol Abu Haniffah Lim Teong Kim Kim Gwang-Mon Tak Yong-Bin Yun Jong-Su Mohamed Ali Hamoud Nasser Khaleefa Ali Sharafat Saleh Eid Al-Mehaizaa Jumah Salem Joher Adel Mubarak Khamis Mansour Sulaiti Fahad Al-Musaibeah Ahmed Madani Yousuf Al-Thunayan Arj Changatamilman Tay Peng Kee Choi Soon-ho Chung Hae-won Chung Yong-hwan Kim Joo-sung Lee Hak-jong Lee Young-jin Park Kyung-hoon Walid Al-Nasser Walid Abou El-Sel Abdul Latif Helou Mohammed Jakalan Prasert Changmool Piyapong Pue-On Abdulaziz Mohamed Abdulrahman Mohamed
1 own goal
Oh Yong-Nam (playing against Japan)
Notes
External links Asian Zone at FIFA.com