2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification

2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	Saudi Arabia (Group A); Tajikistan (Group B); Iran (Group C); Nepal (Group D); Qatar (Group E); Chinese Taipei (Group F); Thailand (Group G); Myanmar (Group H); Mongolia (Group I); Indonesia (Group J)
Dates	16–29 September 2017[1]
Teams	45 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	10 (in 10 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	73
Goals scored	391 (5.36 per match)
Attendance	20,369 (279 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Sutan Zico (10 goals)

The 2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification was an international men's under-16 football competition which decides the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship.

A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Malaysia who qualified automatically as hosts.[2]

Draw

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 45 teams entered the competition.[3] The final tournament hosts Malaysia also entered in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament (they had not been confirmed as hosts at the time of the qualification draw).[4]

The draw was held on 21 April 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[5] The 45 teams were drawn into ten groups: five groups of five teams and five groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:[6]

West: 23 teams from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, to be drawn into five groups: three groups of five teams and two groups of four teams (Groups A–E).
East: 22 teams from ASEAN and East Asia, to be drawn into five groups: two groups of five teams and three groups of four teams (Groups F–J).

The teams were seeded in each zone according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament and qualification (overall ranking shown in parentheses; NR stands for non-ranked teams). The following restrictions were also applied:[7]

The seven teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.

	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5
West Zone	Iraq (1) Iran (2) (H) Oman (5) United Arab Emirates (6) (W) Uzbekistan (7)	Kyrgyzstan (10) Saudi Arabia (11) (H) Yemen (12) India (13) Tajikistan (17) (H)	Syria (21) Jordan (22) Afghanistan (23) Qatar (25) (H) Palestine (28)	Bangladesh (30) Bahrain (31) Lebanon (33) Nepal (34) (H) Turkmenistan (36) (W)	Maldives (37) Bhutan (NR) Sri Lanka (NR)
East Zone	North Korea (3) Japan (4) Vietnam (8) South Korea (9) Thailand (14) (H)	Malaysia (15) (Q) Australia (16) China PR (18) Hong Kong (19) Laos (20)	Timor-Leste (24) Myanmar (26) (H)* Chinese Taipei (27) (H)* Singapore (29) Mongolia (32) (H)	Cambodia (35) Philippines (38) Macau (39) Guam (40) Northern Mariana Islands (41)	Brunei (NR) Indonesia (NR)

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
(H): Qualification group hosts (* Chinese Taipei and Myanmar chosen as group hosts after the draw, remaining group hosted at neutral venue)
(Q): Final tournament hosts, automatically qualified regardless of qualification results
(W): Withdrew after draw

Did not enter
West Zone	Kuwait (suspended)[8] Pakistan
East Zone	None

Player eligibility

Players born on or after 1 January 2002 are eligible to compete in the tournament.[9]

Format

In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualify for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts Malaysia win their group or are among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.[5]

Tiebreakers

Teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):[9]

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 are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are 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 are tied and they met in the last round of the group;
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

The matches were played between 16 and 29 September 2017.

Schedule
Matchday	Groups A, C & F–G		Groups B, D–E & H–J
	Dates	Matches	Dates		Matches
	Dates	Matches	Groups B, D–E & I–J	Group H	Matches
Matchday 1	16 September 2017	3 v 2, 5 v 4	20 September 2017	25 September 2017	1 v 4, 2 v 3
Matchday 2	18 September 2017	4 v 1, 5 v 3	22 September 2017	27 September 2017	4 v 2, 3 v 1
Matchday 3	20 September 2017	1 v 5, 2 v 4	24 September 2017	29 September 2017	1 v 2, 3 v 4
Matchday 4	22 September 2017	2 v 5, 3 v 1	—
Matchday 5	24 September 2017	4 v 3, 1 v 2	—

Group A

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

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Jordan	4	3	1	0	12	3	+9	10	Final tournament
2	Saudi Arabia (H)	4	3	0	1	15	2	+13	9
3	Uzbekistan	4	2	1	1	7	1	+6	7
4	Bahrain	4	1	0	3	8	7	+1	3
5	Sri Lanka	4	0	0	4	0	29	−29	0

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers
(H) Host

16 September 2017

16:00

Sri Lanka	0–6	Bahrain
	Report	Al-Asfoor 1', 66' Alawi 36', 40' Sayed 56' (pen.), 85' (pen.)