News ID: 498

Date: 06 August 2025 - 21:57

#AFCU17 and #U17WAC

hopefuls to discover Qualifiers journey

The qualifying pathways for the next editions of Asia’s U17 national team showpieces will be unveiled on August 7 at the AFC House.

The Qualifiers Draw ceremony for the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ China 2026 is set to take place at 2pm and will be followed by the equivalent for the AFC U17 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 at 4pm, with eight and seven berths on offer respectively for the Finals.

AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ China 2026 Qualifiers Draw

The eighth edition of the Qualifiers is set to be contested by 27 teams, who will be divided into eight groups—three of four teams each and five of three—to contest a single round-robin centralised league format from October 13 to 17, 2025.

The eight group winners will progress to the 10th edition of the Finals, where they will be joined by the four AFC representatives from the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Morocco 2025 who have automatically qualified, namely DPR Korea, Japan, Korea Republic and China PR, to form a 12-strong line-up—four more than the previous edition.

The quartet of Kuwait, Macau, Saudi Arabia and Syria are set to make their Qualifiers debuts, while Thailand is the only side in the Qualifiers cast to have appeared at each of the nine Finals to date.

The 27 teams will be seeded into four pots based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals. The points from each edition will be weighted progressively as follows:

Latest edition (2024): 100% of ranking points

2nd last edition (2019): 50% of ranking points

3rd last edition (2017): 25% of ranking points

At the start of the draw, the teams that will serve as centralised hosts will be separately allocated to a Hosts Pot to ensure that they are drawn into different groups. The pot allocations, with rankings indicated in brackets, are as follow:

Pot 1: Australia (2), Philippines (3), Bangladesh (5), India (6), Islamic Republic of Iran (7), Indonesia (8)

Pot 2: Chinese Taipei (9), Uzbekistan (12), Lebanon (13), Nepal (14), Hong Kong, China (15), Malaysia (16)

Pot 3: Guam (19), Mongolia (20), Northern Mariana Islands (21), Turkmenistan (23)

Pot 4: Kuwait (24), Macau (24), Syria (24)

Hosts Pot: Thailand (1; Seed: 1), Vietnam (4; 1), Myanmar (10; 2), Singapore (11; 2), Jordan (17; 3), Kyrgyz Republic (18; 3), Tajikistan (22; 3), Saudi Arabia (24; 4)

The AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup™ China 2026 will kick off in April 2026 and the top four finishers will represent the Continent at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup Morocco 2026.

Tune in to the Qualifiers Draw on Thursday, August 7, 2025 at 2pm here!

AFC U17 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 Qualifiers Draw

The 21st edition of the Qualifiers is set to be contested by 38 teams, divided into seven groups—three of six teams each and four of five that will each be contested in a single round-robin centralised league format from November 22 to 30, 2025.

All group winners will progress to the 21st edition of the Finals, where they will join the nine AFC representatives from the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025 who have automatically qualified, namely Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Korea Republic, DPR Korea, Japan, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia.

Thirteen teams are aiming to reach the Finals for the first time: Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Lebanon, Macau, Maldives, Mongolia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palestine, Philippines and Sri Lanka.

The cast will be seeded into six pots based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals. The points from each edition will be weighted progressively as follows:

Latest edition (2025): 100% of ranking points

2nd last edition (2023): 50% of ranking points

3rd last edition (2018): 25% of ranking points

Pot 1: Australia (1), Yemen (2), Islamic Republic of Iran (3), Oman (4)

Pot 2: Afghanistan (8), Malaysia (10), Bangladesh (11), Iraq (12), Laos (13), Kuwait (14)

Pot 3: Singapore (15), Bahrain (16), Philippines (18), Turkmenistan (20), Palestine (21)

Pot 4: Syria (22), Mongolia (23), Cambodia (24), Hong Kong, China (25), Chinese Taipei (27), Brunei Darussalam (28)

Pot 5: Nepal (29), Bhutan (30), Northern Mariana Islands (31), Guam (32), Maldives (33), Timor-Leste (34), Lebanon (35)

Pot 6: Macau (36), Sri Lanka (37), Pakistan (38)

Hosts Pot: Thailand (5; Seed: 1), China PR (6; 1), Vietnam (7; 1), India (9; 2), Myanmar (17; 3), Kyrgyz Republic (19; 3), Jordan (26; 4)

The AFC U17 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 will kick off in May 2026 and the top eight finishers will represent the Continent at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2026.

Tune in to the Qualifiers Draw on Thursday, August 7, 2025 at 4pm here!