2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host countries |
 Kyrgyzstan (Group A) Saudi Arabia (Group B) Qatar (Group C) United Arab Emirates (Group D) Palestine (Group E) Myanmar (Group F) North Korea (Group G) Thailand (Group H) Vietnam (Group I) Cambodia (Group J) |
| Dates | 19–23 July 2017 |
| Teams | 40 (from 1 confederation) |
The 2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification is an international men's under-23 football competition which decides the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-23 Championship.
A total of 16 teams qualify to play in the final tournament, including China PR who qualified automatically as hosts.
Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 40 teams entered the competition. The final tournament hosts China PR decided to participate in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament.
The draw was held on 17 March 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 40 teams were drawn into ten groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:
The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship final tournament and qualification. The following restrictions were also applied:
Players born on or after 1 January 1995 are eligible to compete in the tournament.
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 China PR win their group or are among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.
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):
The matches are played between 19 and 23 July 2017.
...
Wikipedia