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. Venues. The competition was played in two venues in two cities. Draw. The final draw was held on 12 December 2017, 11:00 TWT (), 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. 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. Group stage. The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals. 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): All times are local, TWT (). 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). Awards. The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament: