Abu Dhabi: The draw for the final round of qualifiers for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, hosted by the UAE, will be held at St. Regis Corniche in Abu Dhabi on Monday from 4.00pm.
In the draw 24 teams — not including the UAE who have automatically qualified as hosts — will be divided into six groups of four, with matches played home and away from March 28, 2017 to March 27, 2018.
The official logo for the 2019 Asian Cup will also be launched during the ceremony.
Following the AFC’s decision to expand the competition from 16 to 24 teams, the winners and runners-up from each group — a total of 12 teams — will qualify to the 2019 Asian Cup finals.
They will be joined by the other 12 teams, which include defending champions Australia, China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan and hosts the UAE, who have already qualified through round two of joint 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup preliminaries.
The 24 teams to be drawn are in order of seeding; Jordan, Oman, Philippines, Bahrain, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, India, Palestine, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Turkmenistan, Maldives, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan and Macau.
