Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The AFC U-19 Championship 2018 qualifiers official draw will be held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Friday.
The AFC U-19 Championship 2018 Qualifiers draw starts at 4pm, local time.
A total of 43 Member Associations (MAs) from across Asia will participate in the 2018 AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers, with ten (10) group winners and five (5) best second placed teams advancing to the finals along with the hosts. The AFC U-19 Championship qualifying stage is scheduled to take place from October 31 to November 8.
The 43 MAs will be separated into two zones, WEST (West, South and Central) with 22 teams and EAST (East and ASEAN) with 21 teams. Seeding for the draw is based on the rankings of last year’s AFC U-19 Championship in Bahrain. Teams that did not participate in the competition’s 2016 edition have been included but as the lowest-ranked sides. The host MA for the qualifiers will be drawn into separate groups.
The teams will then be drawn into three (3) groups of five (5) teams and seven (7) groups of four (4) teams.
WEST Zone:
Pot 1: Saudi Arabia (Host for Qualifiers), Islamic Republic of Iran (Host for Qualifiers), Iraq, Bahrain, Uzbekistan
Pot 2: Tajikistan (Host for Qualifiers), UAE, Qatar (Host for Qualifiers), Yemen, Palestine
Pot 3: Oman, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkmenistan
Pot 4: Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Syria, India
Pot 5: Kyrgyz Republic (Host for Qualifiers), Maldives
EAST Zone:
Pot 1: Japan, Vietnam, Korea Republic (Host for Qualifiers), Australia, China PR
Pot 2: Thailand, DPR Korea, Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia
Pot 3: Timor-Leste, Singapore, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Macau, Brunei Darussalam, Northern Mariana Islands
Pot 5: Cambodia (Host for Qualifiers), Indonesia, Mongolia (Host for Qualifiers)
*The remaining two (2) balls that are not drawn will be moved to Pot 4