Kuwait U-17 dream begins in Group F as Philippines drawn into tough group
The draw for the qualifiers was conducted at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This will be the 21st edition of the AFC U-17 Championship qualifiers, featuring 38 participating teams divided into seven groups—three groups with six teams and four groups with five teams each.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the final tournament, where they will join nine teams that have already secured automatic qualification by earning spots in the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar. These teams are: Qatar, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Tajikistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.
The group allocations are as follows:
Group A: China (host), Bangladesh, Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka
Group B: Yemen, Laos, Kyrgyzstan (host), Cambodia, Guam, Pakistan
Group C: Vietnam (host), Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Northern Mariana Islands, Macau
Group D: India (host), Iran, Palestine, Taiwan, Lebanon
Group E: Jordan (host), Australia, Iraq, Philippines, Bhutan
Group F (Group 6): Thailand (host), Turkmenistan, Mongolia, Maldives, Blues
Group G: Myanmar (host), Oman, Afghanistan, Syria, Nepal
Teams were seeded into six levels based on a points system calculated from their performances in the previous three editions of the tournament.
The final tournament will be held in Saudi Arabia from May 7 to 24, 2026.
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