The qualifying round of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship will bring together 44 national U23 teams, divided into 11 groups, competing in a round-robin format at a centralized location from September 1 to September 9, 2025. The 11 group winners and the 4 best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals, which will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2026. The host team of the finals will be given a special entry without having to participate in the qualifying round.
Vietnam U23 team is in the number 1 seed group in the 2026 AFC U23 Qualifiers
Notably, the Vietnam U23 team is placed in the No. 1 seed group - a group for the 11 teams with the best cumulative results in the three most recent U23 Asian tournaments (2020, 2022, 2024). Being in the top seed group reflects the fairly stable performance of Vietnamese youth football over the past years, most recently reaching the quarterfinals at the 2024 tournament.
U23 Vietnam competes in U23 Southeast Asian tournament in Indonesia
On the rankings serving the seeding and drawing of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship Qualifiers, the Vietnam U23 team ranked 5th in Asia, after Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq and South Korea.
The draw will be conducted in the following way: teams are divided into four seeding pots based on the AFC-approved points system. In addition, the 11 host nations are placed in a separate pot (Hosts Pot) and drawn in advance to ensure that each host is placed in a different pot. The host teams will be allocated to positions in the group corresponding to their seeding pot.
The list of 11 countries hosting the tournament includes (in alphabetical order):
Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Qatar, Tajikistan, Thailand, UAE and Vietnam.
List of 4 seed groups (in order of ranking):
Group 1: Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, Qatar, Thailand, Jordan, Tajikistan, UAE
Group 2: Indonesia, Kuwait, Iran, Turkmenistan, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Cambodia
Group 3: Myanmar, Oman, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, India, Lebanon, Laos, Timor Leste, Chinese Taipei, Philippines, Hong Kong (China)
Group 4: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Pakistan, Macau, Nepal, Brunei, Bhutan, Northern Mariana Islands
Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/doi-tuyen-u23-viet-nam-thuoc-nhom-hat-giong-so-1-tai-vong-loai-u23-chau-a-2026-20250505101417784.htm
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