2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification

The 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification is the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 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:^[1]

First round: 20 teams (ranked 27–46) will play home-and-away over two legs.
- 10 winners advance to the second round.
- 3 best ranked losing teams advance to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
- 6 worst ranked losing teams advance to the play-off round of Asian Cup qualification.^{[note 2]}
Second round: 36 teams (ranked 1–26 and 10 first-round winners) are 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 qualify for the Asian Cup along with host Saudi Arabia and advance to the third round of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
- The remaining 18 teams advance to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
Play-off round: 6 teams (the worst ranked losing teams from the first round) will play home-and-away over two legs that determine the final 3 qualifiers for the third round.^[2]^{[note 2]}
Third round: 24 teams (3 best ranked losing team from the first round + 18 third and fourth-placed teams from the second round + 3 winners from the play-off round) will be 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.^[1] However, it was not included in the draw for the play-off round.^[2]

The draw for the first and second rounds of joint qualification took place on 27 July 2023.^[3] 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 (ranked 27–46). 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.^[4]^[3]

Schedule

The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the AFC Competitions Calendar.^[6]^[7]^[8] 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 round

The draw for the first round was held on 27 July 2023 at 14:00 MST (UTC+8) at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[3]

Summary

Ranking of best losing teams

Source: AFC

Second round

The draw for the second round was held on 27 July 2023 at 16:00 MST (UTC+8) at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[3]

Group A

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group B

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

^ Japan were awarded a 3–0 victory by forfeit, after North Korea refused to host the match citing concerns about a disease spreading in Japan.

Group C

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

^ a b Head-to-head points: China 4, Thailand 1.

Group D

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group E

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group F

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group G

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
Notes:

^ Saudi Arabia already qualified for the Asian Cup as the host nation and only competed to qualify for the World Cup.

Group H

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Group I

Source: FIFA AFC
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers