The draw for the AFC U17 Asian Cup™ 2025 will occur on Thursday, 23 January ahead of the tournament kicking off in Saudi Arabia in April.
The official draw ceremony will take place at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) House in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 6pm AEST where the Subway Joeys will learn their opponents.
Scheduled to take place from 3 April to 20 April 2025, the 20th edition of the AFC U17 Asian Cup™ will see Saudi Arabia host the event for a second time and first since 1992.
How to watch
- The U17 draw can be live-streamed HERE on the AFC's official YouTube channel.
Brad Maloney's side were one of 15 nations - to join hosts Saudi Arabia - in successfully qualifying for the tournament back in October last year after topping Group G on goal difference with seven points.
Of the 16 teams that featured at the previous edition in 2023, 12 will return for another shot at glory.
Furthermore, the top eight finishers will also seal their places at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025 – the first edition of the newly expanded 48-team strong annual tournament.
The 16 contenders for Saudi Arabia 2025 have been seeded into four pots, in line with the updated seeding principles to be applied in all AFC competitions without access to the corresponding FIFA world ranking for draw events that are organised from 2025 onwards.
This will be based on a points system derived from their final rankings across the previous three editions, with the points obtained by a Member Association from each edition to be weighted progressively as follows:
- Latest edition: 100% of ranking points
- 2nd last edition: 50% of ranking points
- 3rd last edition: 25% of ranking points
As a result, the four pots, derived from the ranking from the previous three editions (2016, 2018, 2023) are as follow, with the hosts seeded first: