Determining the 16 teams that have won tickets, where and when will the 2026 U23 Asian Cup take place?

Among the 15 teams that qualified, there are 11 group winners including Jordan (Group A), Japan (Group B), Vietnam (Group C), Australia (D), Kyrgyzstan (E), Thailand (F), Iraq (G), Qatar (H), Iran (I), South Korea (J) and Syria (K).

Among them, Jordan, Japan, U23 Vietnam, Qatar, Iran, South Korea and Syria all won in the qualifying groups in which they were present.

The 4 best second-placed teams (out of 11 groups) will qualify for the finals, including U23 China (Group D), Uzbekistan (E), Lebanon (F) and UAE (Group I).

Among these teams, U23 China, Uzbekistan and Lebanon each have 7 points. U23 UAE has 6 points after 3 matches. The remaining team that has booked a ticket to the 2026 AFC U23 Championship is host Saudi Arabia. The Arab team is the only team in the finals that does not need to participate in the qualifying round.

Meanwhile, the representative of Southeast Asian football, the Philippines, was unfortunately eliminated. U23 Philippines (Group K) also has 6 points after 3 matches, but the Southeast Asian team is behind UAE in terms of additional index. U23 Philippines ranked 7th in the group of 11 second-placed teams.

Xác định 16 đội giành vé, giải U23 châu Á 2026 diễn ra ở đâu, khi nào? - 2 — U23 Thailand also has a ticket to the 2026 AFC U23 Championship (Photo: FAT).

After the U23 Philippines was eliminated, Southeast Asia only has two representatives to qualify for the AFC U23 Championship, including U23 Vietnam and Thailand. On the other hand, the ambitious teams Indonesia (Group J) and Malaysia (Group F) were both eliminated.

The next notable thing is that all the representatives of the football nations that have won the U23 Asian Championship in the past will be present at the final round taking place next year. These teams include U23 Japan (2 times champion), South Korea (1 time champion), Iraq (1 time), Saudi Arabia (1 time) and Uzbekistan (1 time).

Japan is the only football nation to have won the U23 Asian Championship twice. The rest of the football nations have won the championship at most once.

Japan U23 is also the reigning U23 Asian champion. The final round of the U23 Asian tournament will take place from January 7 to January 25, 2026 in Saudi Arabia.