U23 Indonesia (left) is expected to surprise U23 Korea in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers - Photo: BOLA
The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will feature 44 teams, divided into 11 groups of four. After the qualifying matches, the 11 group winners and the four best-performing teams will qualify for the finals next year in Saudi Arabia.
Difference in class
In Olympic years, the 2026 AFC U23 Championship will also serve as the Asian qualifying round for men's football in the Olympic Games. However, in 2026, due to the lack of an Olympic Games, the goal of the AFC U23 Championship is simply to create a playground for young players to train and develop. Here, fans will have the opportunity to evaluate and reshape the map of Asian youth football.
The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers have 11 teams in the top seed group, including Vietnam, Qatar, Thailand, Tajikistan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Japan, Iraq, South Korea, Jordan and Australia. These are the teams with good results in the most recent AFC U23 Championships.
Therefore, they are considered to be the football teams with the top U23 teams in Asia during this period. It is also quite a coincidence that most of the teams in the above group have strong national teams.
Looking at the seed distribution, experts say that there will be very few surprises in the qualifying round because the teams in group 1 are clearly superior to the rest, especially the teams in groups 3 and 4. In recent seasons, fans have rarely seen teams in group 1 "fall out" from the qualifying round.
If they don't win the top spot, they can easily get a ticket as one of the four second-place teams with the best results.
In the second seed group of the 2026 AFC U23 Championship, there are also many names that make opponents wary, such as Indonesia, Syria, China, Palestine and Iran. But unfortunately for these teams, they are in a group with a very strong first seed.
Waiting for the second division teams to rise
Specifically, U23 Indonesia is the second seed but could have topped the qualifying round if the first seed was not South Korea. Meanwhile, U23 China had to face a very strong opponent in the qualifying round, Australia.
But there are also teams with the second seed that are lucky to fall into a group where the favorite team is only slightly better. For example, U23 Malaysia, when they are in the same group F with Thailand. U23 Iran faces UAE (group I) or Syria faces Tajikistan (group K). Similarly, U23 Yemen (second seed) only has to face U23 Vietnam.
With such lucky draws, the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers promise to be very exciting. Some groups have different levels, making the results easy to predict, but some groups are also very unpredictable. Not to mention that youth football is inherently a playground with many surprises, because the players play too much depending on excitement.
According to experts' predictions, although there are groups with very strong teams, most will qualify thanks to the 4 places reserved for the second-placed team. One thing to look forward to in the 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers is the attitude of the big teams.
The 2026 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers coincide with FIFA Day, so the question is whether the top football nations will prioritize the best young players for the national team or the U23 team.
Their approach to the AFC U23 Championship qualifiers will be crucial, as Asia's top teams show their depth and open up opportunities for smaller teams to surprise.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chau-a-trinh-lang-lua-u23-moi-20250903075736253.htm
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