Competition format
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from previous round | Competition format | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First qualifying round (12 teams) | teams not in the top 8 of last tournament | 3 groups of 4 teams, hosted by Malaysia, Jordan, and Philippines | |
| Second qualifying round (8 teams) | teams placed 6 and 7 in last tournament |
| 2 groups of 4 teams, and a play-off between each group winner hosted by Vietnam |
| Final tournament (6 teams) | top 5 finishers from last tournament |
| round-robin tournament |
The competition format of the qualification is as follows: [2]
- Seeding
- The sixth and the seventh placed teams in the previous edition (
Thailand and 
Vietnam) received byes for the second qualification round. [1] - First qualification round
- 12 teams are divided into three groups of four, where each group plays a single round-robin tournament. Top two teams in each group (total 6 teams) will advance to the second qualification round. Two of the three groups are consisted of central, south and west Asian teams (8 teams), while the other group consists of east and southeast Asian teams (4 teams). [1]
- Second qualification round
- The six teams from the first qualification round and the two teams received the byes are divided into two groups of four, where each group plays a single round-robin tournament. Group winners in the groups will play a play-off match where the winner will qualify for the final tournament.
The draw for the first and the second qualification round is conducted in March 2012 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [1]
If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria were applied to determine the rankings. [2]
- Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Goal difference in all the group matches;
- Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
- Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
- Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches;
- Drawing of lots.
