Abu dhabi: The road to the AFC U17 Asian Cup Uzbekistan 2027 will begin with the Qualifiers Draw on August 27 at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Set to take place at 3 pm, the ceremony will organize the 35 participating teams into seven groups of five. These groups will compete in a single round-robin centralized league during the qualifying rounds, which are scheduled to run from November 8 to 20, 2026.
According to Emirates News Agency, only the seven group winners from the Qualifiers will advance to next year's Finals, which mark their 22nd editions. These winners will join the nine AFC representatives from the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2026 who have automatically qualified. The automatically qualified teams include Australia, China PR, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
Thirteen teams are aiming to make their debut in the Finals. These teams are Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Lebanon, Maldives, Mongolia, Northern Mariana Islands, Palestine, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Macau, China. The teams have been seeded into five pots and an additional Hosts Pot for the draw, based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the most recent three editions.
The Hosts Pot includes Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Kyrgyz Republic.