The following teams did not enter main qualification, but could qualify via the AFC Challenge Cups if they chose to enter:  Afghanistan  Bangladesh  Bhutan  Brunei  Cambodia  Chinese Taipei  Guam  Kyrgyzstan  Laos  Macau  Mongolia    Nepal  Pakistan  Palestine  Philippines  Sri Lanka  Tajikistan  Timor-Leste The preliminary round reduced the number of non-automatic qualifiers to 20.
The following teams did not enter main qualification, but could qualify via the AFC Challenge Cups if they chose to enter:  أفغانستان  بنغلاديش  بوتان  بروناي  كمبوديا  تايبيه الصينية  غوام  قيرغيزستان  لاوس  ماكاو  منغوليا  نيبال  باكستان  فلسطين  الفلبين  سريلانكا  طاجيكستان  تيمور الشرقية The preliminary round reduced the number of non-automatic qualifiers to 20.