In April 2025, it was announced that the second edition of the CAFA Nations Cup would be held around September 2025, commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the CAFA organization.[1][2]
In June 2025, it was confirmed the second edition would be co-hosted in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on 29 August to 8 September 2025 for the six member associations along with Malaysia and Oman as the guest teams.[3][4]
On 15 July 2025, Malaysia announced their withdrawal from the competition, citing reasons including problems with logistics and players' availability.[5][6] On 30 July 2025, India was announced as the guest team, replacing Malaysia in Group B.[7]
The following eight teams were divided based on their FIFA Ranking of April 2025. Malaysia (131 ranked) was part of the 3 July draw but later withdrew on 15 July.
The draw was held in Dushanbe on 3 July 2025 at 16:00 (UTC+5), and was broadcast live on YouTube. The draw resulted in the following groups with Malaysia included at the time of the draw, later being replaced by India:[8][9][10]
Each team was required to register a preliminary squad of up to 35 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers, from which the matchday squad could be selected on a match-by-match basis.[6]
Officials
The following officials were chosen for the competition. (†): Also performed as both in some matches.
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 tie-breaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings.
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 were 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);
Updated to match(es) played on 1 September 2025. Source: Soccerway Rules for classification: Tiebreakers (A) Advance to a further round; (H) Hosts Notes:
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