# 2018 AFC Futsal Championship

The 2018 AFC Futsal Championship was the 15th edition of the AFC Futsal Championship, the biennial international futsal championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's national teams of Asia. The AFC appointed Taipei and New Taipei City, Taiwan (designated as Chinese Taipei by FIFA) as hosts on 29 July 2017; the tournament took place between 1 and 11 February 2018 at Xinzhuang Gymnasium and University of Taipei Gymnasium. A total of 16 teams played in the tournament.
Defending champions Iran defeated Japan in the final to win their 12th title.

## Qualification

Qualifying was played on 15 October – 12 November 2017.

### Qualified teams

The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Qualified as | Appearance | Previous best performance |
| Chinese Taipei | Hosts | 12th | Quarter-finals (2003) |
| Vietnam | ASEAN Zone Group A winners | 5th | Fourth place (2016) |
| Myanmar | ASEAN Zone Group A runners-up | 1st | Debut |
| Thailand | ASEAN Zone Group B winners | 15th | Runners-up (2008, 2012) |
| Malaysia | ASEAN Zone Group B runners-up | 12th | Group stage (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2016) |
| Japan | East Zone Group A winners | 15th | Champions (2006, 2012, 2014) |
| South Korea | East Zone Group B winners | 13th | Runners-up (1999) |
| China | East Zone play-off winners | 12th | Fourth place (2008, 2010) |
| Uzbekistan | South & Central Zone Group A winners | 15th | Runners-up (2001, 2006, 2010, 2016) |
| Kyrgyzstan | South & Central Zone Group A runners-up | 15th | Semi-finals (2005), Fourth place (2006, 2007) |
| Iran | South & Central Zone Group B winners | 15th | Champions (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2016) |
| Tajikistan | South & Central Zone Group B runners-up | 10th | Quarter-finals (2007) |
| Bahrain | West Zone Group A winners | 2nd | Group stage (2002) |
| Iraq | West Zone Group A runners-up | 11th | Quarter-finals (2002, 2016) |
| Lebanon | West Zone Group B winners | 11th | Quarter-finals (2004, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014) |
| Jordan | West Zone Group B runners-up | 2nd | Group stage (2016) |

## Venues

The competition was played in two venues in two cities.
| New Taipei City | Taipei |
| Xinzhuang Gymnasium | Taipei Gymnasium |
| Capacity: 7,125 | Capacity: 1,000 |

## Draw

The final draw was held on 12 December 2017, 11:00 TWT (UTC+8), at the Sherwood Taipei in Taipei. The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The teams were seeded according to their performance in the 2016 AFC Futsal Championship final tournament and qualification, with the hosts Chinese Taipei automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Chinese Taipei (hosts) Iran Uzbekistan Thailand | Vietnam Japan Iraq Kyrgyzstan | China Malaysia Lebanon Tajikistan | Jordan South Korea Bahrain Myanmar |

## Squads

Each team must register a squad of 14 players, minimum two of whom must be goalkeepers (Regulations Articles 29.4 and 29.5).

## Match officials

The following referees were chosen for the 2018 AFC Futsal Championship.

### Referees

* Darius Turner
* Hussain Ali Al-Bahhar
* An Ran
* Liu Jianqiao
* Lee Po-fu
* Mahmoudreza Nasirloo
* Hasan Mousa Al-Gburi
* Tomohiro Kozaki
* Kim Jong-hee
* Nurdin Bukuev
* Mohamad Chami
* Helday Idang
* Rey Ritaga
* Yuttakon Maiket
* Azat Hajypolatov
* Fahad Al-Hosani
* Anatoliy Rubakov
* Trương Quốc Dũng

## Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.

### Tiebreakers

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 11.5):
* 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 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);
* Drawing of lots.
All times are local, TWT (UTC+8).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Vietnam | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Bahrain | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 5 | +1 | 4 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Chinese Taipei (H) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 9 | −1 | 4 | |
| 4 | Malaysia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 9 | −2 | 3 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Japan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Uzbekistan | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 8 | +11 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Tajikistan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 3 | |
| 4 | South Korea | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 25 | −21 | 0 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Iran | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 4 | +26 | 9 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Iraq | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 9 | +1 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | China | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 18 | −10 | 3 | |
| 4 | Myanmar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 22 | −17 | 0 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Lebanon | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Thailand | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 7 | +8 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Kyrgyzstan | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | −5 | 4 | |
| 4 | Jordan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 | −7 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

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 (no extra time) is used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 15.1).

### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| 8 February – U. of Taipei Gym. | 8 February – U. of Taipei Gym. | | | |
| Lebanon | 2 (8) | | | |
| Lebanon | 2 (8) | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | | |
| Iraq (p) | 2 (9) | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | |
| Iraq (p) | 2 (9) | Iraq | 0 | |
| 8 February – U. of Taipei Gym. | 8 February – U. of Taipei Gym. | | Iraq | 0 | |
| 8 February – U. of Taipei Gym. | 8 February – U. of Taipei Gym. | Japan | 3 | |
| Japan | 2 | Japan | 3 | |
| Japan | 2 | | | | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. |
| Bahrain | 0 | | | | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. |
| Bahrain | 0 | | | | Japan | 0 |
| 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | | | | | Japan | 0 |
| 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | | | | Iran | 4 |
| Iran | 9 | | | | Iran | 4 |
| Iran | 9 | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | | | |
| Thailand | 1 | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 9 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | | | |
| Thailand | 1 | Iran | 7 | | | |
| 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | | Iran | 7 | | | |
| 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 8 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | Uzbekistan | 1 | | Third place | Third place |
| Vietnam | 1 | Uzbekistan | 1 | | Third place | Third place |
| Vietnam | 1 | | | | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. |
| Uzbekistan | 3 | | | | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. | 11 February – Xinzhuang Gym. |
| Uzbekistan | 3 | | | | Iraq | 4 (1) |
| | | | | | Uzbekistan (p) | 4 (2) |

### Final
## Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
| Top Goalscorer | Most Valuable Player | Fair Play award |
| Hossein Tayyebi | Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh | Iraq |

## Goalscorers

There were 203 goals scored in 32 matches, for an average of 6.34 goals per match.
14 goals
* Hossein Tayyebi
12 goals
* Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh
10 goals
* Mahdi Javid
7 goals
* Kaoru Morioka
* Davron Choriev
4 goals
* Farhad Tavakoli
* Waleed Khalid
* Apiwat Chaemcharoen
* Suphawut Thueanklang
* Mashrab Adilov
* Artur Yunusov
3 goals
* Lin Chih-hung
* Ahmad Esmaeilpour
* Mohammad Shajari
* Salim Faisal
* Hassan Ali Jabar
* Shota Hoshi
* Ahmad Kheir El-Dine
* Ali Tneich
* Awalluddin Nawi
* Pyae Phyo Maung (2)
* Jetsada Chudech
* Ilhomjon Hamroev
2 goals
* Ahmed Abdulnabi
* Mohamed Al-Sandi
* Gu Haitao
* Xu Yang
* Zhang Yameng
* Lai Ming-hui
* Moslem Oladghobad
* Hasan Dakheel
* Firas Mohammed
* Ryosuke Nishitani
* Kazuya Shimizu
* Maksat Alimov
* Adilet Imanbekov
* Ali El-Homsi
* Jang Yeong-cheol
* Umed Kuziev
* Dilshod Salomov
* Jirawat Sornwichian
* Farkhod Abdumavlyanov
* Anaskhon Rakhmatov
* Dilshod Rakhmatov
* Nguyễn Đắc Huy
* Phùng Trọng Luân
* Vũ Đức Tùng
1 goal
* Mohamed Abdulla
* Ali Saleh
* Shen Siming
* Zhao Liang
* Chi Sheng-fa
* Huang Po-chun
* Huang Tai-hsiang
* Saeid Ahmadabbasi
* Mehran Alighadr
* Zaid Ali
* Rafid Hameed
* Yuki Murota
* Kazuhiro Nibuya
* Koichi Saito
* Manabu Takita
* Abdel Samara
* Qais Shabib
* Musa Abu Shaikha
* Iuldashbai Salimbaev
* Manas Abdrasul Uulu
* Mohamad Kobeissy
* Kassem Koussan
* Hassan Zeitoun
* Aizad Daniel
* Azwann Ismail
* Khairul Effendy
* Khin Zaw Lin
* Nyein Min Soe
* Chun Jin-woo
* Park Young-jae
* Nekruz Alimakhmadov
* Shavqat Halimov
* Rustam Hamidov
* Bahodur Khojaev
* Fayzali Sardorov
* Rahmonali Sharipov
* Iqboli Vositzoda
* Nattawut Madyalan
* Kritsada Wongkaeo
* Khusniddin Nishonov
* Ikhtiyor Ropiev
* Dilmurod Shavkatov
* Phạm Đức Hòa
1 own goal
* Huang Tai-hsiang (against Malaysia)
* Mohammad Abou Zeid (against Thailand)

## Tournament team rankings

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final results |
| 1 | Iran | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 6 | +44 | 18 | Champions |
| 2 | Japan | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 10 | +8 | 15 | Runners-up |
| 3 | Uzbekistan | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 27 | 20 | +7 | 10 | Third place |
| 4 | Iraq | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 18 | −2 | 8 | Fourth place |
| 5 | Lebanon | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 8 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 6 | Thailand | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 16 | 0 | 6 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 7 | Vietnam | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 6 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 8 | Bahrain | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | −1 | 4 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 9 | Chinese Taipei (H) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 9 | −1 | 4 | Third place in group stage |
| 10 | Kyrgyzstan | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 11 | −5 | 4 | Third place in group stage |
| 11 | Tajikistan | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 8 | +3 | 3 | Third place in group stage |
| 12 | China | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 18 | −10 | 3 | Third place in group stage |
| 13 | Malaysia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 9 | −2 | 3 | Fourth place in group stage |
| 14 | Jordan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 | −7 | 0 | Fourth place in group stage |
| 15 | Myanmar | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 22 | −17 | 0 | Fourth place in group stage |
| 16 | South Korea | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 25 | −21 | 0 | Fourth place in group stage |