The 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup was the 7th edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup, the biennial international youth football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. A total of 16 teams played in the final tournament. Players born on or after 1 January 2003 were eligible to participate.
The tournament took place from 6 to 24 January 2026 and was hosted by Saudi Arabia, who was selected for hosting the upcoming 2027 AFC Asian Cup.
16 teams competed in the tournament. Qualification took place in September 2025. Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon qualified for the first time.
This was the final non-Olympic edition of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup with the competition becoming quadrennial.
Defending champions Japan successfully retained the title after defeating the surprise of the tournament, China, in the final, and became the first team to win consecutive titles in the tournament history.
Host selection In July 2023, the AFC Competitions Committee announced that each non-Olympic edition of the tournament would be hosted by the same association hosting the following AFC Asian Cup. Therefore, Saudi Arabia will be hosting the 2026 edition.
Qualification
Qualification matches were played between 3 and 9 September 2025.
Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup. TeamQualification methodDate of qualificationAppearance(s)Previous best performance Debut Debut Notes
Venues Four stadiums will be used, of which two (Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City and Al-Shabab Club Stadium) from the 2027 AFC Asian Cup were selected for the tournament. JeddahPrince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City StadiumKing Abdullah Sports City Hall StadiumCapacity: 24,159Capacity: 3,853 RiyadhPrince Faisal bin Fahd Sports City StadiumAl-Shabab Club StadiumCapacity: 22,838Capacity: 14,000
Draw
The draw took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 2 October 2025 at 15:00 MST (UTC+8).
The 16 teams were placed into four groups of four teams, with seeding based on their performance in the previous three editions of the tournament (2020, 2022, and 2024). As hosts, Saudi Arabia were ranked as the top seeded team. Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4
Match officials The following referees and assistant referees were appointed for the tournament. Video assistant referees were used in this tournament.
Referees
Alex King Ammar Mahfoodh Fu Ming Thoriq Alkatiri Payam Heydari Zaid Thamer Mohammed Ryo Tanimoto Abdullah Jamali Tuan Yaasin Qasim Al-Hatmi Abdulla Al-Marri Faisal Al-Balawi Choi Hyun-jai Kim Yu-jeong Yahya Al-Mulla Asker Nadjafaliev
Assistant referees
James Lindsay Kearney Robinson Mohamed Salman Cao Yi Bangbang Syamsudar Ali Ahmadi Farhad Farhadpoor Ameer Al-Windawi Hayder Ubaydee Takeshi Asada Yosuke Takebe Ali Jraq Shafiq Ahmad Said Nasser Ambusaidi Juma Al-Burshaid Khaled Khalaf Ibrahim Al-Dakhil Faisal Al-Qahtani Cheon Jin-hee Jang Jong-pil Park Mi-suk Saeed Al-Marzooqi Ruslan Serazitdinov Bakhtiyorkhuja Shavkatov
Video assistant referees
Kate Jacewicz Jin Jingyuan Luk Kin Sun Jumpei Iida Abdullah Arab Khamis Al-Marri Abdullah Al-Shehri Muhammad Taqi Kim Woo-sung Sivakorn Pu-udom Mohammed Obaid Khadim Firdavs Norsafarov
Squads
Players born on or after 1 January 2003 are eligible to compete in the tournament. Each team will register a squad of 18 to 23 players, including a minimum of three goalkeepers (Regulations Article 26.3).
Group stage The group winners and runners-up advanced to the knockout stage, which will begin with the quarter-finals.
Tiebreakers Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 7.2): Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams were tied and they met in the last round of the group; Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points); Drawing of lots.
All times are local, SAST (UTC+3). Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-outs will be used to decide the winner if necessary.
Bracket
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Winners
Awards The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
Top scorerBest playerBest goalkeeperFair-play award Nguyễn Đình Bắc Ryūnosuke Satō Rui Araki
Statistics Goalscorers
Final ranking Ranking criteriaFor teams eliminated in the quarter-finals, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings: Points in all matches; Goal difference in the quarter-finals; Goals scored in the quarter-finals; Points in group stage; Goal difference in group stage; Goals scored in group stage; Disciplinary points; Drawing of lots.
For teams eliminated in the group stage, the following criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the final rankings: Position in group; Points; Goal difference; Goals scored; Disciplinary points; Drawing of lots.
Broadcasting rights TerritoryRights holder,,Middle East
See also 2026 AFC U-17 Asian Cup
Notes
References
External links , the-AFC.com