Kuala Lumpur: The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) announced today that the official AFC U23 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2026 Qualifiers Draw will take place on Thursday, 29th May, at 3 pm local time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at the AFC House.
According to Emirates News Agency, a total of 44 teams will be sorted into 11 groups to compete for the Qualifiers, which are scheduled to occur between 1st and 9th September 2025. The seventh edition of the tournament, hosted by Saudi Arabia for the first time, is set to take place in January 2026, with 15 berths available.
Saudi Arabia, champions in 2022, have secured automatic qualification as hosts and will be joined by the 11 group winners from the Qualifiers, along with the four best-ranked runners-up. The Qualifiers will feature a centralised league format, with teams seeded into five pots based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals.
At the start of the draw, teams designated as centralised hosts will be placed in a separate Hosts Pot to ensure they are distributed into different groups. The Hosts Pot includes United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Qatar, Thailand, Jordan, Tajikistan, Indonesia, China, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan.