May 25 – After a gap of four years, the AFC national team futsal championships have returned this year with the finals to be held in Kuwait September 27 to October 8.
On Thursday the final draw for the Futsal Asian Cup Kuwait 2022 will be held at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Futsal has a special place in the AFC’s competition structure with the confederation qualifying five teams to the last Futsal World Cup in Lithuania in 2021 – only UEFA qualified more teams (6). At the World Cup in 2016 in Colombia, Iran finished third. They are currently the highest ranked AFC nation in the world rankings at sixth.
After an intensive series of qualifying rounds, 16 teams will go into the pot this week from which four groups of four will be drawn.
Hosts Kuwait have been placed as the top seeded Member Association (MA) while the ranking of the AFC Futsal Championship Chinese Taipei 2018 (Iran beat Japan 4-0 in the final) will determine the seeding of the remaining challengers.
Joining Kuwait in Pot 1 are Iran (12 titles), Japan, and Uzbekistan, who have finished second on four occasions.
Iraq, Lebanon, Vietnam and Bahrain are in Pot 2. Thailand, who are the Southeast Asian Games gold medalist, are in Pot 3 with Chinese Taipei, Tajikistan and Korea Republic.
Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkmenistan and debutants Oman make up Pot 4.
The top two in each group will qualify for the knock out rounds.
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