The 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification is the qualification process organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to determine the participating teams for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, the 19th edition of the international men's football championship of Asia.
The qualification process involves a total of four rounds, where the first two rounds double as the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification for Asian teams, with the final two solely for 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification.
First round: 20 teams (ranked 27–46) played home-and-away over two legs.
10 winners advanced to the second round.
3 best ranked losing teams advanced to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
6 worst ranked losing teams advanced to the play-off round of Asian Cup qualification.[note 2]
Second round: 36 teams (ranked 1–26 and 10 first-round winners) were divided into 9 groups of 4 teams to play home-and-away double round-robin matches.
The remaining 18 teams advanced to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.
Play-off round: 6 teams (the worst ranked losing teams from the first round) played home-and-away over two legs that determined the final 3 qualifiers for the third round.[2][note 2]
Third round: 24 teams (3 best ranked losing team from the first round + 18 third and fourth-placed teams from the second round + 3 winners from the play-off round) were divided into 6 groups of 4 teams to play home-and-away double round-robin matches and the winner of each group will occupy the remaining 6 slots for the Asian Cup.
Entrants
Forty-six FIFA-affiliated nations are eligible to enter the joint qualification process for both the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup; Northern Mariana Islands, which is not a FIFA member, would have entered through the play-off round.[1] However, it was not included in the draw for the play-off round.[2]
The draw for the first and second rounds of joint qualification took place on 27 July 2023.[3] Teams were seeded into four pots. Pots 1, 2 and 3 contain the teams ranked 1–9, 10-18 and 19-26 respectively, while Pot 4 contains the remaining 20 teams (ranked 27–46). All teams from Pot 4 were drawn to the first round into two pots. Teams from Pots 1, 2 and 3 were drawn directly to the second round, along with an allocated first-round tie winner.[4][3]
The schedule of the competition is expected to be as follows, according to the AFC Competitions Calendar.[6][7][8] This is the first Asian Cup qualification that starts before the previous final matches would be held, as the 2023 AFC Asian Cup was postponed to early 2024.
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers will be applied in the following order (Regulations Article 7.3):[9]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying criteria 1 to 3, a subset of teams is still tied, criteria 1 to 3 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);
Updated to match(es) played on 14 October 2025. Source: AFC Rules for classification: Tiebreakers (E) Eliminated; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated
There have been 536 goals scored in 181 matches, for an average of 2.96 goals per match (as of 14 October 2025). Players highlighted in bold are still active in the competition.
↑ Saudi Arabia participated to reach the World Cup.
1 2 Originally this was announced to be 10 teams (9 worst ranked losing teams from the first round + Northern Mariana Islands). However, Guam withdrew and the Northern Mariana Islands were not included in the draw for the play-off round announced on 1 May 2024.
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Bjørn Martin Kristensen 
Nasser Al-Gahwashi 
