The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup qualification phase will see five teams advance to the finals to join three automatic qualifiers in the final tournament in Sri Lanka.
Contents
- Seeding
- Qualifying preliminary round
- Qualifying group stage
- Group A
- Group B
- Group C
- Group D
- Ranking of second placed teams
- Final tournament
- Qualifiers
- Goalscorers
- References
Qualification consists of two sections.
Seeding
Seeding was based partially on the FIFA World Ranks as at January 2009 (ranking shown in brackets).
Laos, Timor Leste and Guam chose not to compete. Afghanistan withdrew prior to their first match.
Qualifying preliminary round
Moved from originally scheduled dates of 7 March and 14 March due to conflict with the qualification for the 2010 East Asian Football Championship.
3–3 on aggregate. Macau advanced to the group phase on the away goals rule.
Qualifying group stage
Qualification was officially scheduled take place from 2–13 April 2009, although the actual dates began before and extended beyond that. Each qualification group will be held in a single location - Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka hosting their respective groups.
The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a tie, 0 points for a loss) and tie breakers are in following order:
- Greater number of points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Goal difference resulting from the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Greater number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- Goal difference in all the group matches;
- Greater number of goals scored in all the group matches;
- Kicks from the penalty mark if only two teams are involved and they are both on the field of play;
- Fewer score calculated according to the number of yellow and red cards received in the group matches; (1 point for each yellow card, 3 points for each red card as a consequence of two yellow cards, 3 points for each direct red card, 4 points for each yellow card followed by a direct red card)
- Drawing of lots.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Tie-breaking situation:
Group D
Ranking of second placed teams
The best-ranked second placed team will also qualify for the finals tournament.
Due to Afghanistan's withdrawal from Group C, matches against fourth-placed sides in the other groups are excluded from the following comparison.
Notes on the tie-breaking situation:
Final tournament
The final tournament, consisting of 8 teams, was eventually held from 16–27 February in Sri Lanka.
Qualifiers
The eight teams that qualified for the final tournament are:
The draw for the final tournament was done on 30 November 2009 at the Galadri Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka.