The Football Association of Indonesia has been confirmed as the Host Association of the AFC Futsal Asian Cup™ in 2026 after the AFC Executive Committee ratified the AFC Futsal & Beach Soccer Committee’s recommendation on November 8, 2024.
Additionally, in establishing the seeding principles for all editions of the AFC Futsal Asian Cup™ and the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup™ from 2025 onwards, the current approach of using the participating teams’ ranking from the preceding edition of the competition prior to the draw will make way for the new FIFA Futsal World Ranking, which was introduced by the world governing body in May this year.
Meanwhile, following the AFC Competitions Committee’s decision to organise the Qualifiers and Finals of the AFC U17 Asian Cup™ annually, the 2026 edition of the competition will take place from May 14 to 31, 2026 with the Qualifiers scheduled to be held from November 22 to 30, 2025.
Further, should Qatar, who have qualified as host of the 2025 to 2029 editions of the FIFA U17 World Cup, finish in the top eight of the AFC U17 Asian Cup™, the best third-placed team among all the groups will qualify for the corresponding FIFA U17 World Cup as the ninth team. The selection of the best third-placed team will be determined by the criteria outlined in Appendix 2 of the AFC Competition Operations Manual (Edition 2023).
Finally, the AFC Executive Committee also ratified the AFC Competitions Committee’s decision to introduce new seeding principles for the AFC’s competitions.
To ensure a more balanced and fair approach, the updated seeding principles will be calculated from each participating team’s final ranking in the most recent three (3) editions of the respective AFC competitions.
The updated seeding principles will be applied in all AFC competitions without access to the corresponding FIFA world ranking, including but not limited to youth and beach soccer competitions, for the official draw events from 2025 onwards.
