The 2024 AFC Futsal Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Futsal Asian Cup, the biennial international futsal championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's national teams of Asia. The tournament was held in Thailand between 17 and 28 April.[1]
A total of 16 teams competed in the tournament. Japan, the defending champions, were eliminated in the group stage for the first time. Iran claimed their thirteenth Futsal Asian Cup after winning the final against the host Thailand 4–1. Uzbekistan defeated Tajikistan 3–1 on penalties following a 5–5 draw in the third place play-off.
Semi-finalists including Iran, Tajikistan and Thailand qualified for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup besides Uzbekistan who automatically qualified as host. As Uzbekistan reached the semi-finals, a play-off round was held to determine the last Asian spot at the Futsal World Cup. Afghanistan won the play-off round.
Many accomplishments were achieved at the tournament. Afghanistan made their debut and also advanced to the quarter-finals. In the group stage, Myanmar gained their first win, while South Korea gained their first point in 14 years. Tajikistan made their first appearance in the semi-finals, while Thailand reached the final for the first time in 12 years. All five teams from Central Asia advanced to the quarter-finals, with three of them reaching the semi-finals.
India and Thailand expressed interest to host the tournament.[2][3] Later, Thailand was selected as hosts by the AFC Futsal and Beach Soccer Committee on 5 September 2023.[4]
The draw for the qualifiers was held on 22 June 2023.[5] The host Thailand qualified directly for the final tournament, while the other teams competed in the qualifying stage for the remaining 15 spots. The qualifiers were played between 7 and 13 October 2023.
Of the 16 teams appearing, 11 teams were returning after appearing in the 2022 edition.
Afghanistan were the only debutant in the competition, while Australia marked their return for the first time in 8 years. China, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar also qualified for the first time in 6 years. Iran, Japan, Thailand and Uzbekistan were the only four teams to qualify for every edition.
Three nations from the previous edition failed to qualify (Chinese Taipei, Indonesia and Lebanon) and other two nations from the previous edition did not enter to qualifiers (Oman and Turkmenistan).
The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams, with seeding based on their performance at the qualification and the final of the previous edition.[8] Seeding was shown in parentheses except the team who previously did not participate, which were denoted by (–).
The host Thailand automatically seeded to Pot 1 and placed into the first position of Group A.
Each team was required to registered a squad with a minimum of 14 players and a maximum of 25 players, at least two of whom had to be goalkeepers (Regulations Article 23).[1]
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 7.3):[1]
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);
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out without extra time is used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 10).[1]
The competition of the play-offs depended on the performance of Uzbekistan, who qualified automatically for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup as hosts. Uzbekistan advanced to the semi-finals, therefore the play-offs format was held for the remaining four quarter-final losers to play a single elimination play-off. The winner of the play-off 3 qualified the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup.
There have been 177 goals scored in 35 matches, for an average of 5.06 goals per match. Scores in play-off matches for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup were included but not considered for the top goalscorer.
As per statistical convention in futsal, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.[10] The AFC published the tournament standings in August 2024.[11] Statistics in play-off matches for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup are included in this table. The team rankings will be used for seeding in the qualification draw and the final draw of the next edition.
^The results of play-off matches were considered for the final standings published by the AFC,[12] in contradiction to the AFC's general principle that play-off matches for international competitions are not to be considered for the stadings.[10]
^For 9th to 16th place, teams are ranked in descending order as follows: position in the group stage, points in all group matches, goal difference in all group matches, goals scored in all group matches, disciplinary points in all group matches and drawing of lots.[10]
Qualified teams for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup
Semi-finalists including Iran, Tajikistan and Thailand qualified for the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup besides Uzbekistan who automatically qualified as host. As Uzbekistan reached the semi-finals, a play-off round was held to determine the last Asian spot at the Futsal World Cup. Afghanistan won a play-off round. Thailand were the only team from ASEAN in the Futsal World Cup among the Central Asian teams.
Tajikistan and Afghanistan made debut. Iran, Thailand and Uzbekistan continued their appearing. Iran have been the most appearances in the Futsal World Cup with eight and the most successful team from AFC with the third place in 2016. Thailand and Uzbekistan have appeared for the sixth and second time, respectively, with their best finish at the round of 16.
Japan and Vietnam who previously qualified in 2021 stopped qualifying in the Futsal World Cup for the sixth and third time, respectively. Japan were eliminated in the group stage for the first time by a loss to Kyrgyzstan and a draw to Tajikistan. Vietnam were eliminated in the play-offs after being defeated by Kyrgyzstan.
"Ramma Chana" was the mascot of the tournament. "Rama" refers to Phra Ram, main figures of Ramakien which is a Thai version of the ancient Indian epic Ramayana. "Chana" means win in Thai. It was formed by combining many types of animals such as onyx dragon, macchanu, elephants, tigers, cats, and kirin, creating a new character similar to the animals of Himavanta.[15]
Iran (13th title)
Thailand
Uzbekistan
Tajikistan
China
Afghanistan
Saudi Arabia
Kyrgyzstan
Vietnam
South Korea
Myanmar
Kuwait
Bahrain
Iraq
Japan
Australia
10:51 (pen.)
Farzad Mahmoodi
Behrouz Azimi
Yūsei Arai
Maksat Alimov
Komron Aliev
Alongkorn Janphon
Abror Akhmetzyanov
Ali Al-Araibi
Mustafa Ihsan Al-Bayati
Ko Ko Lwin
Nawaf Mubarak Aroan
Nguyễn Mạnh Dũng
Shervin Adeli
Yakepujiang Maimaiti
Naser Al-Alban
Kim Seung-hyun
