AFCU23 Final Draw to set up Saudi Arabia 2026 battles

—- With three months to kick-off, the stage is set for the AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 Final Draw to take place on October 2 (Thursday) at 3pm.

To be held at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, the ceremony will divide the 16-strong final cast into four groups for the seventh edition of the tournament that is scheduled to commence on January 7, 2026.

Saudi Arabia, who are serving as hosts for the first time and have automatically qualified, are joined by 15 teams who advanced from the Qualifiers that concluded earlier this month.

All five previous champions, namely Iraq, Japan, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, will feature; along with Australia and Jordan, they are the only seven teams to be involved at every edition. Meanwhile, the Kyrgyz Republic and Lebanon have achieved their maiden Finals qualification.

As the hosts, Saudi Arabia are the top seed, while the other 15 teams will be seeded into four pots based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions of the Finals. 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 pot allocations, with rankings indicated in brackets, are as follows:

Pot 1: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan (1), Japan (2), Iraq (3)
Pot 2: Korea Republic (5), Vietnam (6), Australia (7), Qatar (8)
Pot 3: Thailand (9), Jordan (10), United Arab Emirates (11), Islamic Republic of Iran (12)
Pot 4: China PR (13), Syria (14), Kyrgyz Republic (15), Lebanon (16)

The top two finishers of each group will progress to the Knockout Stage, with the Final showdown to be contested on January 25, 2026.

Follow the latest news of the AFC U23 Asian Cup™ Saudi Arabia 2026 here and tune in to the Final Draw on Thursday, October 2, 2025 at 3pm (GMT+8) here!
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