The 2018 AFC U-16 Championship qualification was an international men's under-16 football competition which decides the participating teams of the 2018 AFC U-16 Championship.
A total of 16 teams qualified to play in the final tournament, including Malaysia who qualified automatically as hosts.[2]
Of the 47 AFC member associations, a total of 45 teams entered the competition.[3] The final tournament hosts Malaysia also entered in qualification despite having automatically qualified for the final tournament (they had not been confirmed as hosts at the time of the qualification draw).[4]
The draw was held on 21 April 2017, 15:00 MYT (UTC+8), at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.[5] The 45 teams were drawn into ten groups: five groups of five teams and five groups of four teams. For the draw, teams were divided into two zones:[6]
West: 23 teams from West Asia, Central Asia and South Asia, to be drawn into five groups: three groups of five teams and two groups of four teams (Groups A–E).
East: 22 teams from ASEAN and East Asia, to be drawn into five groups: two groups of five teams and three groups of four teams (Groups F–J).
The teams were seeded in each zone according to their performance in the 2016 AFC U-16 Championship final tournament and qualification (overall ranking shown in parentheses; NR stands for non-ranked teams). The following restrictions were also applied:[7]
The seven teams which indicated their intention to serve as qualification group hosts prior to the draw were drawn into separate groups.
In each group, teams play each other once at a centralised venue. The ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualify for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts Malaysia win their group or are among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up also qualifies for the final tournament.[5]
Teams are 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 are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 9.3):[9]
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are 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 are 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);
French
Deutsch
Sutan Zico (10 goals)
Jordan 
Saudi Arabia (H) 
Uzbekistan 
Bahrain 
Sri Lanka 
Tajikistan (H) 
Oman 
Syria 
Maldives 
Turkmenistan 
Iran (H) 
Afghanistan 
Kyrgyzstan 
Lebanon 
Bhutan 
Iraq 
India 
Palestine 
Nepal (H) 
Yemen 
Bangladesh 
Qatar (H) 
United Arab Emirates 
North Korea 
Hong Kong 
Brunei 
Chinese Taipei (H) 
Macau 
Thailand (H) 
East Timor 
Laos 
Northern Mariana Islands 
South Korea 
China 
Myanmar (H) 
Philippines 
Australia 
Vietnam 
Cambodia 
Mongolia (H) 
Japan 
Malaysia[a] 
Singapore 
Guam