2026 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualification

2026 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualification
Tournament details
Host countries	Bhutan (Group A); Vietnam (Group B); Tajikistan (Group C); Myanmar (Group D); China (Group E); Malaysia (Group F); Uzbekistan (Group G); Laos (Group H)
Dates	6–10 August 2025
Teams	33 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	8 (in 8 host cities)
Tournament statistics
Matches played	48
Goals scored	249 (5.19 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ho Kyong; (8 goal)
	← 2024 2028 →

The 2026 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualification was a women's under-20 football competition that determined the participating teams in the 2026 AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup final tournament.

A total of 12 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, with the host country qualifying automatically. The qualifying round was held between 6 and 10 August 2025.^[1]^[2]

Draw

The draw was held on 28 April 2025, 15:00 in Malaysia.^[3]

Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 33 teams entered the competition. Unlike the previous edition, there was no automatic qualification for the final tournament by their position from the last tournament; all teams excluding the host participated in qualification. The 33 teams were divided into eight groups, seven groups of four teams and one group of five. The teams were seeded based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals.^[3]

Thailand automatically qualified for the final tournament as hosts.

**Teams entering qualifying round**
	Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5 (unranked)
Host pot	China (H) Vietnam (H) Uzbekistan (H) Myanmar (H)		Malaysia (H) Bhutan (H) Laos (H)	Tajikistan (H)
Remaining teams	North Korea Japan Australia South Korea	Chinese Taipei Iran Lebanon Nepal India Jordan Kyrgyzstan Bangladesh	Hong Kong Cambodia Palestine Northern Mariana Islands Indonesia	Guam Turkmenistan Mongolia (W) Singapore	Bahrain Saudi Arabia Syria Timor-Leste

Notes

Teams in bold qualified for the final tournament.

Did not enter

Afghanistan
Brunei
Iraq
Kuwait
Macau
Maldives
Oman
Pakistan
Philippines
Qatar
Sri Lanka
United Arab Emirates
Yemen

Format

Tiebreakers

Teams were 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 were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 7.2):^[4]

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 two or more 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 meet 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

Group A

All matches were held in Bhutan.
Times listed are UTC+6.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	North Korea	3	3	0	0	36	0	+36	9	Final tournament
2	Nepal	3	1	1	1	2	12	−10	4
3	Saudi Arabia	3	1	0	2	2	17	−15	3
4	Bhutan (H)	3	0	1	2	2	13	−11	1
5	Mongolia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Withdrew

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

6 August 2025