Indonesia Confirmed as Host for 2026 AFC Futsal Asian Cup

The Football Association of Indonesia has been confirmed as the Host Association for the 2026 AFC Futsal Asian Cup™ following the AFC Executive Committee's endorsement of the AFC Futsal & Beach Soccer Committee's recommendation on November 8, 2024.

A significant change in the seeding principles for the AFC Futsal Asian Cup™ and the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup™ was also announced. Starting from 2025, the seeding for these competitions will be based on the new FIFA Futsal World Ranking, introduced by FIFA in May this year, replacing the previous method of using rankings from the preceding edition of the competition.

In addition, the AFC Competitions Committee has decided to organize the Qualifiers and Finals of the AFC U17 Asian Cup™ annually. The 2026 edition will take place from May 14 to 31, with the Qualifiers scheduled from November 22 to 30, 2025.
Further, if Qatar, the host of the FIFA U17 World Cup from 2025 to 2029 and a participant in the 2026 AFC U17 Asian Cup™, finishes in the top eight, the best third-placed team among all groups will qualify for the FIFA U17 World Cup as the ninth team. The selection criteria are detailed in Appendix 2 of the 2023 AFC Competition Operations Manual.

The AFC Executive Committee also approved new seeding principles for all AFC competitions to ensure a more balanced and fair approach. The updated seeding will be based on the final rankings of each participating team in the most recent three editions of the respective AFC competitions, and this will apply to all competitions that do not have access to the corresponding FIFA world ranking, including youth and beach soccer tournaments, from 2025 onwards.