The 2018 AFC Futsal Championship qualification was the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship, the 15th edition of the international men's futsal championship of Asia.[2]
A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Chinese Taipei who qualified automatically as hosts.[3]
The qualification process was divided into four zones, where the ASEAN Zone doubled as the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship, the East Zone and West Zone was played in Thailand, and the South Zone was merged to Central Zone as Nepal was the only team from South Zone.
Qualification process
Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 29 teams entered the competition. The 16 spots in the final tournament are distributed as follows:
Host : 1 spot
ASEAN Zone : 4 spots
South & Central Zone : 4 spots (the two zones were merged since Nepal was the only team from South Zone)
West Zone : 4 spots
East Zone : 3 spots
As the final tournament hosts had not been announced at the time of the qualifying draw, the hosts Chinese Taipei were also included in the draw. Despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament, they may still decide to participate in qualification, and if they finish in one of the qualification spots, the next best team in their zone (East) advances to play-off.
The original draw for the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship was held on 17 February 2017, 10:00 MMT (UTC+06:30) during the AFF Council Meeting at the Novotel Yangon Max Hotel in Yangon, Myanmar.[4] After Australia withdrew from the competition, a re-draw was held on 23 September 2017 during the AFF Council Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.[5]
(*) Not vying for qualification but will still play matches.[6]
Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.
AFC Draw
The draw was held on 6 July 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,[7][8] except for the ASEAN Zone which uses the 2017 AFF Futsal Championship as their qualification tournament and whose draw had already been held. The mechanism for each zone is as follows:
East Zone : seven teams from East Asia, were drawn into one group of four teams and one group of three teams.
South & Central Zone : seven teams from South Asia and Central Asia, were drawn into one group of four teams and one group of three teams.
West Zone : eight teams from West Asia, were drawn into two groups of four teams.
In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue; except ASEAN Zone, South & Central Zone.
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 11.5):[2]
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.
ASEAN Zone
The (AFC) matches were played between 26 October and 30 October 2017.
In the event the Philippines, Timor Leste or both finish among the top two teams in their group the next best team/s qualify for the final tournament instead since both countries did not submit their entries for the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship.[6]
^ ab"AFC Futsal Club Licensing Regulations to strengthen professionalism in Asia". AFC. 29 July 2017.
^"Women's Championship 2017 cancelled". ASEAN. 17 February 2017.
^"Redraw for AFF HDBank Futsal Championship 2017". ASEAN. 24 September 2017.
^ abcde"Thailand the ones to beat in AFF Futsal Championship 2017". Asian Football Confederation. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
^"AFC Futsal Championship 2018 Qualifiers Draw". YouTube. 6 July 2017.
^"AFC Futsal Championship 2018 hopefuls learn their opponents". AFC. 6 July 2017.
^"Futsalroos funding cut by FFA for 2017-18 financial year". Fox Sports Australia. 5 July 2017.
^"FIFA Congress drives football forward, first female secretary general appointed". FIFA. Archived from the original on May 16, 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
^"Thailand the ones to beat in AFF Futsal Championship 2017". Asian Football Confederation. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
Pyae Phyo Maung I (11 goals)
Thailand 
Iran 
Vietnam (H) 
Indonesia 
Brunei 
Philippines[a] 
Malaysia 
Laos 
East Timor[a] 
Japan 
Chinese Taipei[a] 
Mongolia 
Macau 
South Korea 
China 
Hong Kong 
Uzbekistan 
Kyrgyzstan 
Turkmenistan 
Nepal 
Tajikistan 
Afghanistan 
Bahrain 
Iraq 
Saudi Arabia 
United Arab Emirates 
Lebanon 
Jordan 
Qatar 
Syria 
Pyae Phyo Maung I
Muhammad Osamanmusa
Phùng Trọng Luân
Ardiansyah
Kazuya Shimizu
Khairul Effendy
Lin Chih-hung
Mahdi Javid
Bruno Gomes
Soulichanh Phasawaeng
Jassam Saleh
Emil Kanetov
Mülkaman Annagulyýew
Davron Choriev
Faiz Hasnan
Li Jianjia
Mustafa Bachay
Samer Al-Deen
Hassan Zeitoun
Bat-Orgil Erdenebat
Suraj Raut
Abdulaziz Al-Alouni
Kim Min-kuk
Jawad Haidari
Li Ka Chun
Cheong Loi
Said Al-Bulushi
Nekruz Alimakhmadov
Tariq Abdulla
Lorenzo Hermosa (against Myanmar)
