The Blue Tigers will know about their group stage opponents for the qualifiers on Thursday.
Ahead of the AFC U23 Asian Cup 2026 Qualifiers draw, India U23 national football team are placed in Pot 3 as they find out about their group stage opponents. The qualifiers set to commence from September 1 till September 9, 2025 will witness 44 teams vying out for 15 spots in the continental showcase in Saudi Arabia in January 2026.
The seventh edition of the AFC U23 Asian Cup will witness champions Japan defend their 2024 crown. However, teams will have to first qualify from their respective groups and prove their worthiness to compete for the crown of being AFC U23 Asian Cup champions.
Format
Each group will be contested in a centralised league format. Based on the final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals, the teams are going to be seeded into five pots based on a points system.
The points from each edition will be weighted progressively as follows:
- Latest edition (2024): 100% of ranking points
- 2nd last edition (2022): 50% of ranking points
- 3rd last edition (2020): 25% of ranking points
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 at the start of the draw.
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The pot allocations, with rankings indicated in brackets, are as follow:
Pot 1:
- Uzbekistan (1)
- Japan (2)
- Iraq (3)
- Korea Republic (5)
- Australia (7)
Pot 2
- Kuwait (14)
- Islamic Republic of Iran (15)
- Turkmenistan (16)
- Malaysia (17)
- Bahrain (19)
- Palestine (20)
- Syria (21)
- Yemen (22)
Pot 3
- Oman (25)
- Singapore (26)
- India (28)
- Lebanon (29)
- Laos (30)
- Timor-Leste (31)
- Chinese Taipei (32)
- Philippines (33)
- Hong Kong, China (34)
Pot 4
- Afghanistan (35)
- Bangladesh (36)
- Mongolia (37)
- Guam (39)
- Pakistan (41)
- Macau (42)
- Nepal (43)
- Brunei Darussalam (44)
- Sri Lanka (45)
- Bhutan (46)
- Northern Mariana Islands (47)
Hosts Pot
- Vietnam (6; Seed: 1)
- Qatar (8;1)
- Thailand (9;1)
- Jordan (10;1)
- Tajikistan (11;1)
- United Arab Emirates (12;1)
- Indonesia (13;2)
- China PR (18;2)
- Cambodia (23;2)
- Myanmar (24;3)
- Kyrgyz Republic (27;3)
How To Watch
The AFC U23 Asian Cup Qualifiers draw will be live streamed on the AFC’s Official YouTube channel on Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 12:30 PM.
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