The Asian qualifying competition for 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup was an extraordinary men's

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hardcourt, hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and Indoor soccer, indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players ...

competition that determines two of the five national teams which are members of the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly in ...

(AFC) playing in the

2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup The 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Futsal World Cup, the quadrennial international futsal championship contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was held in Lithuania. ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, which was originally scheduled to be held in 2020 but postponed to 2021 due to the

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. The matches were played at the neutral venue of

Khorfakkan Futsal Club Hall Khor Fakkan ( ar, خَوْر فَكَّان, Khawr Fakkān) is a city and exclave of the Emirate of Sharjah, located on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), facing the Gulf of Oman, and geographically surrounded by the Emirate of Fuja ...

Khor Fakkan Khor Fakkan ( ar, خَوْر فَكَّان, Khawr Fakkān) is a city and exclave of the Emirate of Sharjah, located on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), facing the Gulf of Oman, and geographically surrounded by the Emirate of Fuja ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

between 20 and 25 May 2021.

Format

The five AFC teams playing in the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup would originally be determined by the

2020 AFC Futsal Championship The 2020 AFC Futsal Championship would have been the 16th 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. A total of ...

, with the top five teams qualifying. Following the cancellation of the championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the AFC announced on 21 April 2021 that they agreed to two sets of criteria of establishing the AFC representatives for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup. The first criteria took reference from the top five teams of the most recent edition (

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), while the second criteria applied a point system which calculates the top five teams from the overall ranking of the last three editions of the AFC Futsal Championship (

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

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). Based on the results of combined criteria, the top three recurring teams (Iran, Japan, and Uzbekistan) were directly nominated as the AFC representatives for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup. Additionally, the four remaining teams: Iraq (although had not qualified for the 2020 AFC Futsal Championship formerly), Lebanon, Thailand, and Vietnam would play play-off matches over two legs. The two winners would qualify for the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup. Although all matches were eventually played at a neutral venue, the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

would still be applied.

Draw

The draw was held on 27 April 2021, 16:00

MST The Master of Studies or Master in Studies (M.St. or MSt; ) is a postgraduate degree at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of St Andrews, the Australian National University, University of Dublin and the University of Ne ...

(

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

), at the AFC House in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. The four teams (Iraq, Lebanon, Thailand, and Vietnam) were drawn into two pairings. The team drawn first in each pairing would be the home team for the first leg, and the team drawn second in each pairing would be the home team for the second leg.

Summary

The first legs were played on 20 and 23 May, and the second legs on 25 May 2021.

Matches

Thailand won 11–2 on aggregate and qualified for the

. ---- 1–1 on aggregate. Vietnam won on away goals and qualified for the

Goalscorers

Qualified teams for FIFA Futsal World Cup

The following five teams from AFC qualify for the

. :

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. ''Italic'' indicates hosts for that year.

References

External links

FIFA Futsal World Cup
the-AFC.com
FIFA Futsal World Cup 2021
stats.the-AFC.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fifa Futsal World Cup qualification (Afc) 2021 Afc

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

May 2021 sports events in Asia International futsal competitions hosted by the United Arab Emirates